Bhubaneswar, June 15: The stink from solid waste dumped by the civic body in various parts of the city is becoming too much for residents here to bear.

Residents of VSS Nagar and Saheed Nagar complained that the Bhuba-neswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had made the VSS Nagar underpass, which is located adjacent to the National Highway-5, their permanent dump yard. An official of the civic body, however, brushed aside the complaint and said the underpass was only a waste collection point. But local residents alleged that the civic officials rarely cleared the area of garbage.

"There is a slum near the VSS Nagar underpass, where the civic body's vehicles come and dump garbage in the open," said Binayak Rath, a resident of Saheed Nagar.

"The place is only about 200 meters away from Saheed Nagar's residential locality. With no effort at waste clearance, the garbage heap is rising everyday. We are being forced to live in an unhygienic condition," Rath said.

The entrance to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Park across the highway tells a similar story.

Visitors to the park, mainly morning walkers, accused the civic body of dumping garbage along the park's boundary wall.

"The situation is such that we will have to stop going for morning walks from now on to avoid the stink," said Pratik Panda, a resident of Satsang Vihar.

Residents of Satya Nagar and Bomikhal have also voiced similar complaints against the civic body.

They have accused members of its sanitation department of collecting garbage from various parts of the city and dumping it below the railway overbridge at Satya Nagar.

While the site is supposed to be just a transit point for waste disposal, nobody ever comes to remove garbage from under the overbridge, said a local resident.

"This practice actually exposes the civic body and the state government's claim about cleanliness," said schoolteacher and Bomikhal resident Girija Mishra.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said he was not aware of the issue. He, however, assured that he would look into the matter.

"We have engaged three agencies to take care of sanitation issues in the city. I will personally look into the matter and take strict action if any agency or official is found guilty," said Jena.

The corporation's indiscriminate dumping of waste also exposes the residents to the threats of various diseases, especially during the monsoon season.

Public health experts say that accumulation of rainwater in the garbage would make these places perfect breeding sites for mosquitoes. The dumped waste will also pollute the soil and the groundwater if rainwater gets mixed with garbage and percolates into the ground.

"Monsoon is the time when several water and vector-borne diseases strike. The civic body should keep the city clean and free from waterlogging to avoid the spread of diseases such as hepatitis, dengue or malaria," said medical practitioner Sobhan Rath.