Puri, July 19: Streets here wore a clean look today, a day after the car festival concluded on Saturday, courtesy an efficient solid waste management by the municipality.
Sources said the town with a population of more than two lakh generates solid waste around 70 metric tons everyday, but during days such as rath yatra, bahuda and suna besha, the quantity goes up to 180 metric tons.
Puri Municipality officials said the quantum of solid waste generated between July 17 evening and July 19 night would be around 500 metric tons. While the cleaning work of Bada Danda was done by a Jharkhand-based private agency, another firm has been entrusted with the job of cleaning the sea beach.
"Both the private parties have deployed 200 workers, while the municipality has engaged around 700. Besides, we have roped in 300 more from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar municipal corporations," said executive officer of Puri Municipality Manish Agarwal.
The garbage mostly includes shoes left behind by devotees, coconut shells and flowers. People have also left behind empty plastic water bottles and pouches. The leftover food and the plates used by various groups for free distribution compound the problem.
The residents, however, feel the municipality could have done better. "Solid waste management has been a major concern for the residents during important festivals. As a large number of devotees have congregated in Puri due to Nabakalebar, the civic body could have engaged more workers to clean the city," said Ajay Pradhan, a resident.
Civic body officials said the workers would be there till the end of suna besha. "Around 30 tractors have been engaged to lift the garbage. The waste are dumped in Baliapanda and subsequently it is transported to another place for treatment," said a civic body official.
On the other hand, residents of Puri heaved a sigh of relief, as the crowd had become thinner. "The huge turnout had even restricted our movement as we were unable to commute on our two-wheelers. My family had a smooth darshan of the deities today as it was less crowded," said Ramesh Panigrahi, a resident.
