Garbage dumped in Bhubaneswar after pujas.Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 11: Heaps of garbage lay scattered all over the city in the wake of Durga Puja, even as the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) appears unaware of the mess. A huge turnout at Puja pandals all over town has left rubbish piles as a memory of the festival.

The areas surrounding Puja pandals are the filthiest. The area near Saheed Nagar Puja pandal is littered with garbage. “In the last three days, no one has turned up to collect the loads of garbage that have been generated at different places near the Puja pandal. We have approached the authorities to collect and dump the waste material, but nothing has been done so far. Lakshmi Puja is round the corner, so we will be facing lots of problems,” said Harish Prasad Rath, treasurer of Saheed Nagar Durga Puja Samiti.

The situation is no different at places through which the immersion processions passed. The area near Janpath Road is covered with trash generated during the festival. “It is natural that loads of waste were generated, as people in large numbers thronged the city to visit Puja pandals. The authorities need to do their part by removing the garbage,” said Niharika Samal, a local resident.

Residents charged the civic authorities with negligence, as the festival ended three days ago. “If the authorities had acted swiftly and removed the garbage immediately after the immersion the situation would not have been this bad,” said Prasant Behera, a resident of VSS Nagar.

Shortage of workers to collect the garbage is the main reason behind large amounts of trash heaped at various places. “Despite granting no leave to the workers, we are grappling with a shortage of employees for garbage cleaning and lifting. This is why the process is getting delayed. We are carrying out the dumping process in phases and very soon we will be able to clean the whole city,” said Chandrika Prasad Das, city health officer.

Deputy commissioner of BMC Priyadarshi Mohapatra said the delay was mainly due to the huge amount of garbage generated during the Puja.

“We have to carry out additional cleaning along with daily cleaning. This is creating difficulties for us. We have received a number of complaints regarding this and within two days all the garbage will be cleared,” he said.

According to official sources, nearly 440 metric tones per day (MTD) of solid waste is generated in the city and during Puja, an additional 150 MTD of solid waste was generated. Street sweeping, primary collection and other sanitation activities are carried out by private contractors in 51 wards while the remaining nine wards are managed by the BMC.