Cuttack, Oct. 27: After a week of festivities that concluded with the immersion of Durga idols, it is back to the grind for residents in various localities who are struggling to fight the stench from the unattended garbage piling up in their areas.

The sanitary workers are struggling to clear the garbage generated in the 59 wards as the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has decided to first clear immersion waste on a priority basis. This has led to the inordinate delay in clearance of the garbage from several localities even though the civic body has been successful in clearing the waste from the traditional immersion route from Manglabag to Choudhry Bazaar.

Official sources said the city had generated around 100 tonnes of garbage during the immersion ceremony that was observed in a grand manner on October 24.

"Solid waste could not be collected systematically owing to problems in the dumping yard at Chakradharpur," said Ranjan Biswal, chairperson of CMC standing committee on public health. Problems arose at Chakradharpur following stiff opposition from residents earlier this month.

Biswal said there was a backlog in clearance of the solid waste from several localities as the sole weighing and transfer point at Satichoura was packed with over 4,000 tonnes of garbage.

Though the corporation made temporary arrangements to dispose of the solid waste at Bhuasuni in Bhubaneswar to tide of the situation, it has also delayed timely collection and disposal of waste in the city.

"Though the sanitary workers are collecting garbage from our locality, they are dumping at a few designated points, which in turn have not been cleared," said Sanjay Das, a resident of Buxi Bazar.

Das said that most of the identified dumping places mostly bins are running out of space to accommodate the extra waste generated from each locality.

Usually, the city generates between 200 and 250 tonnes of waste every day while nearly 30 per cent of the waste that is left over is cleared the next day. Besides, nearly 50 tonnes of extra garbage was also generated from the three temporary ponds that were set up by the civic body for the immersion of nearly 158 idols near Debigada this year.

"Around 40 to 50 tractors were engaged in clearing the waste and other puja articles from the temporary ponds over the past two days. Already, steps have been taken to streamline the overall sanitation measures in the city," said city health officer P.K. Pradhan. He said the overall sanitation situation would improve in the next couple of days.