Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, Oct. 13: The immersion ceremony, the last leg of Durga Puja festivities, has left behind a trail of waste dumped across the immersion procession routes in the twin cities.
In Bhubaneswar, the civic body promptly cleaned the procession route from Vani Vihar to Master Canteen Square and Rajmahal Square. But the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, which roped in about 30 extra sanitary staff members for the cleaning work, is still struggling to make the city spic and span.
In Cuttack, the overall sanitation measures of the city were also adversely affected in several localities as the civic body had diverted nearly 20 staff members to clear the puja waste from the four temporary ponds dug up for immersion of idols at Debigada.
Sources in the civic body said Cuttack generated an additional solid waste of 100 tonnes during the immersion ceremony yesterday. Usually, the city generates 160 tonnes of solid waste every day.
More than three lakh devotees from various parts of the state thronged Cuttack city yesterday to take part in the immersion processions. The waste was mostly generated by temporary kiosks selling food items that had come up on the 5km stretch from Ranihat to Debigada in areas such as Mangalabag, Buxi Bazaar and Choudhry Bazaar.
Heaps of garbage were dumped along the main roads at Buxi Bazaar, Choudhry Bazaar, Purighat and Mangalabag, which created a lot of problems for roadside shop-owners and commuters here today. "Though the sanitary staff tried their best to clear the waste by sweeping the roads, garbage was piled right in front our shops and was not cleared till 4pm today," said Sudhir Agarwal, a trader at Buxi Bazaar.
Tinikonia Bagicha resident Kishore Mohanty said the civic body had completely failed to ensure sanitation during the festive season. "Though additional dustbins were allotted to the puja pandals, there was an inordinate delay in clearing garbage from the mandaps and from roadsides," said Mohanty.
Cuttack's city health officer P.K. Pradhan told The Telegraph that more than 121 Durga idols were immersed at the temporary ponds on the Kathajodi riverbank at Debigada yesterday, while more than 13 idols were scheduled to be immersed today.
"We had deployed about 50 additional sanitary staff members today for speedy clearance of solid waste. But as the immersion ceremony was not completed today, it created further problems in lifting the garbage from several areas," said Pradhan.
In Bhubaneswar, though the idol immersion procession route has been cleaned by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, heaps of solid waste can be seen lying scattered across the pandals. The Durga Puja pandals at Rasulgarh and Baramunda have garbage strewn all around the place.
Bhubaneswar's city health officer Chandrika Prasad Dash said the busy route from Vani Vihar Square to Rajmahal Square was cleaned last night on a priority basis. He said the ponds, where the idols were immersed, would be cleaned by tomorrow evening.
