Cuttack, July 15: The civic body's contractual sweepers dumped garbage on all major roads, resulting in traffic snarl and air pollution, to press for their 10-point demand, including job regularisation.

The safai karamcharis emptied garbage trucks on the streets at Badambadi, Ranihat, Mangalabag, Nayabazar and Ring Road. They also stopped daily garbage collection as a sign of protest.

Cuttack Municipal Corporation's routine sanitation drive was adversely hit with employees resorting to cease work here today.

"Most parts of the city had almost turned into a garbage bin, and the stink created lot of problems for residents and commuters," said Badambadi resident Umesh Rout.

The overall sanitation drive in nearly 30 of the 59 wards was affected due to the agitation.

As many as 660 regular sanitary employees of the civic body struggled to dispose of the waste generated from their respective areas. Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited is carrying out the entire solid waste collection and disposal in 36 wards.

"Usually, it takes nearly two to three days for the civic body to clear waste generated from the localities as the garbage collected is dumped near a bin, which is cleared twice every week," said Mission Road resident Pradip Sahoo.

The corporations's Safai Employees' Union president Amar Nayak said that nearly 1,400 contractual sanitary staff members consisting of sweepers, drivers and others, engaged in drain cleaning jobs, had staged the demonstration.

The civic body has engaged all the contractual employees through two main outsourcing companies for effective management of the solid waste and other regular sanitation drives in the city.

"We had resorted to cease work as the authorities did not take any measures for the regularisation of our jobs and providing other basic amenities, including health and safety instruments," said Nayak.

The union has also demanded for abolition of the two-time sweeping of roads and localities, implementation of health insurance, weekly off days and payment of Rs 200 as minimum wages.

"The overall sanitation in few wards was partly affected by the sanitary employees' strike. We have already deployed our regular staff members for clearance of garbage - which will be lifted by tonight," said city health officer P.K. Pradhan.

The sanitary employees called off their agitation after the senior civic body officials had sought a seven-day time and assured them of considering their demands.