Balangir, April 25: The municipal council here has finally engaged two private firms to take up sanitation work in 11 wards of Balangir municipality from Monday after much uncertainty.

The council had laid special emphasis on privatisation of the sanitation work in its annual budget of Rs 32 crore, which was passed by the council last month. Municipality sources said at least 40 per cent of the budget had been earmarked for sanitation, which was in a sorry state.

Initially, 11 wards out of the 21 in the town — wards 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 19 — have been privatised. The two firms, which have been entrusted to carry out the sanitation work in the town, are the Cuttack-based firms Chandan Security Service and Kalinga Vikash. Earlier, privatisation of sanitation work in the municipality had been delayed after facing opposition from the workers’ union.

Municipality sources said the firms would be paid Rs 55,000 per ward per month to take up the sanitation work that include door-to-door collection of waste, drain cleaning and providing mosquito oil.

Executive officer of Balangir municipality Srikant Das said this was a landmark step by the municipality to hand over sanitation work to the private organisations. “The two firms which have been engaged for the work would take up door-to-door collection of waste, cleaning of drains and also provide the mosquito oil. They will also clean the streets twice a day. They will be paid Rs 55,000 per month per ward. Since this is a new initiative, residents should cooperate to make it successful. If the initiative proves successful, it will be extended to other wards of the town,” Das said.

The sanitation of the town is in a bad state because of choked drains, garbage dumps and water logging in several parts of the town.

“The only drain that we have in our locality is always choked. Despite repeated requests, the municipal people never look into the problem. A little rain compounds the situation as water floods the street of the locality,” said Samerendra Nayak of Salepali of the town.

About four years ago, the Centre for Environment, Cooperation and Research Development (CECRD) had mooted a scientifically developed project of aerobic digestion of solid waste management, which would have gone a long way to serve the purpose of environment protection and employment generation in Balangir municipality. The project was shifted to Patnagarh after the employees’ union vehemently opposed the project, claiming it privatised the municipality.