Balangir, Jan. 31: The local civic body’s practice of dumping garbage by the Balangir-Titilagarh road, which is also the National Highway 26, has irked residents of the town.

The Balangir Municipality is dumping waste right at the entrance to the town.

The place has several signboards welcoming people to Balangir. However, municipal authorities expressed helplessness, saying they did not have an alternate site.

Apart from the National Highway 26, the Balangir Municipality also dumps garbage near the railway overbridge by the Balangir-Sonepur road.

Rajat Tripathy, a resident of Palace Line, said the dumping of garbage by the national highway had set a bad precedence.

“It is a very bad practice to dump the town’s waste in such a way. The site by the NH-26 where the garbage is dumped is an important place. It is the entrance to the town where several welcome boards have been erected.”

“The heap of garbage and its foul smell not only pollutes the environment, but also creates a bad impression in the minds of the people who come to the town,” Tripathy said.

The State Institute of Hotel Management and the district tourism office are situated near the dumping site.

Executive officer of the Balangir Municipality Santosh Behera admitted that they had been dumping garbage in these places as they did not have a proper dumping yard.

“We are facing problems in getting a suitable place for dumping the town’s garbage. We had selected a 10-acre plot at Bishnu Munda and the tender process was completed.”

“But then, the local people objected to it. Once we have a proper dumping yard, we will stop dumping garbage elsewhere,” Behera said.