Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation has decided not to make payments to the agencies entrusted to ensure cleanliness in the city unless they obtain a performance certificate from the respective councillors or ward officers.

The decision was taken after several councillors raised the issue of bad sanitation in their respective wards because of irregular nature of the sanitation agencies engaged with the civic body for maintenance of cleanliness at 57 wards of the city.

"We received several complaints from the residents that garbage was not being lifted on time, sweeping was not done regularly and door-to-door collection of waste from the households was not being done properly. We took up the matter with the mayor," said a councillor.

Consequently, the mayor called the three sanitary agencies and asked them to obtain the performance certificates from the local councillors or ward officers every month where it should be mentioned that the cleanliness activities were being taken up properly, failing which they would face a cut in their fees.

"The sanitation scenario has evidently derailed in the past four to five months. It is due to the irregular nature of the sanitation agencies. The certificate practice, which was in place, was dropped. Such a warning is a must if we want to get good work from the private agencies," said another councillor.

Three private sanitation agencies are engaged to maintain the cleanliness in 57 wards while the civic body itself maintain the sanitation at the remaining 10 wards. The three sanitation agencies engaged in the job are PMR, Ramky and Jagruti. They engage their manpower and garbage-carrying vehicles, trolleys and other equipment to keep the city clean.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they review the performance of the sanitation agencies and cut their fees from time to time if they fail to deliver. "We got several complaints and thus took the decision," said Jena.