Rourkela, June 25: Missing garbage bins in several localities are creating problems for residents here.
Over the past 15 days, several such bins have gone missing and people have been dumping garbage on the road, which is leading to pollution and emanating stench.
"The dustbin in front of my house has been missing for the past 10 days," said Srabani Das, a resident of C block in Koelnagar.
Mena Das, a resident of Basanti Colony, said: "The dustbins in our locality are missing and people are dumping garbage on the road and this has made our life miserable. The authorities hardly clean the garbage."
Amit Mishra, a resident of Gopabandhu Nagar, said: "The authorities should come and see how the Swachh Bharat campaign is going on at this municipality."
Employees at the municipality beat office at Koelnagar said the situation had arisen due to the lack of maintenance. The dustbins require maintenance and that is why they are missing.
"We are helpless when our bosses are least bothered about the missing dustbins, which require maintenance," said one of them.
"When a VIP complains, it is taken seriously and a better bin is picked up from somewhere else, leaving that area to suffer, and is put there," said another employee.
This has become the practice every year during the monsoon. The municipality has a couple of tractors, which have various uses including supplying water tankers to pulling garbage trolleys to pick up dustbins.
"How can we clean all areas of the city on a regular basis with such limited resources?" said a tractor driver.
Executive engineer of Rourkela Municipality Manoranjan Das said: "It is a fact that nearly 30 dustbins are not in their places because they have been brought in for maintenance. We will replace them shortly."
When asked about the delay, he said: "It was not possible to complete the job because of the rain. When the weather clears in a day or two, we will do it."
However, he failed to give any convincing answer on why the maintenance was being done during the monsoon and not summer.
