Garbage littered near the dharna site on Mahatma Gandhi Marg in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 1: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is yet to take steps to keep Mahatma Gandhi Marg clean, though it has decided to levy tax on protesters staging demonstration on the stretch.

The protesters alleged that despite depositing a sum of Rs 1,000 with the civic body to get a no-objection certificate for staging demonstrations, the corporation was not lifting garbage regularly from the dharna site. Consequently, the area is stinking with garbage littered all around.

Roads close to the dharna site are being swept on a regular basis, but the trash generated at the site is dumped around the place instead of being cleared.

“We have deposited Rs 1,000 before staging a dharna at lower PMG, but the corporation is not keeping the area clean. Once in a while the garbage is lifted and most of the times these remain scattered in the area,” said Biswajit Das, a forestry student, who has been staging a dharna since the start of the current Assembly session.

The protesters even said that there was just one drinking water tanker available, which was inadequate.

“At a time when the sun is blazing, only one water tanker cannot meet the people’s demand,” said Dibyasingh Swain, an art student, who has been staging a dharna since March 14. Sometimes during rallies the congregation goes up to nearly 5,000, resulting in people standing in queue to get drinking water.

The Telegraph carried a report on February 21 on the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s decision to levy a charge on those planning to organise dharnas on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg

Earlier, the corporation, amid criticism from various quarters, had decided to levy a tax of Rs 1,000 for staging dharnas during this budget session on the basis of power granted to the civic authorities under the Orissa Municipal Corporation (OMC) Act, 2003. Several political parties and social activists have opposed the move, but the civic body stood by its decision saying that the move aimed to prevent environment pollution by the protesters, who littered the site with garbage.

Corporation sources said only a handful of organisations had deposited the amount to get no-objection certificate from the civic authorities so far. “During this Assembly session, tax collectors of the corporation had visited the place to collect the money from organisations staging dharna without depositing the fee. But they returned empty handed,” said a civic body official. Four organisations out of eight, who are, at present, staging dharnas, have deposited the money at the corporation.

However, mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said it would take some time to streamline the process. “Nothing can be changed overnight. The protesters also need to cooperate with the civic authorities by littering at a particular place rather than in the entire area, so that garbage collection and dumping can be easily done,” said Jena. He also said the corporation had nothing to do with drinking water facilities, as the public health engineering organisation provided the water tanker during rallies.