The Cuttack Municipal Corporation building. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, Oct. 14: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has launched a special sanitation drive to ensure that the city stays clean and free of polythene bags during Dussehra.

According to officials, CMC started the special drive yesterday.

“We will ensure that proper standard of sanitation, cleanliness and limited use of polythene is maintained across the city along with proper supervision at ground level,” city health officer N.C. Raj told The Telegraph today.

The Puja committees were requested to cooperate with CMC to maintain proper sanitary conditions in the city and ask the public to restrict their use of polythene bags to a minimum and dispose them properly.

The civic body had undertaken an awareness programme against the use of polythene bags, which invariably rises during Dussehra. “We are taking adequate steps to restrict the use of polythene bags by puja committees,” said B.C. Sahu, president of Manglabag Puja committee.

According to official reports, Cuttack, with a population of nearly 7lakh spread over an area of 133.9sqkm, has a volume of waste from nearly 800 hotels and restaurants. There are more than 200-odd slum pockets, over 3,000 industrial and commercial units, 635 offices and institutions, four cinemas, 23 parks, 1.37 lakh households and over 2,000 cowsheds.

The city generates a total of nearly 500 metric tonnes of solid waste every day.

In addition to people from their respective localities gathering at the 153 mandaps, more than 2lakh come from outside. Hence, CMC officials expect an estimate an increase in waste of nearly 70 metric tonne per day during the six days.

The special drive is underway in all 54 wards. Over a hundred workers have been hired on a contract basis to keep the areas near the puja mandaps clean.

“Two sanitary workers have been engaged for each Puja mandap. Apart from sweeping and cleaning the mandap area and its vicinity, they will also segregate polythene from other waste materials to facilitate proper disposal,” the city health officer said.

“All Puja mandaps committees have been asked to dump garbage at assigned points to ensure smooth collection of garbage and solid waste,” he said. “In order to maintain cleanliness near the Puja mandaps, which will be visited by hundreds of people, sweeping and clearance of the solid waste will be vital,” said P.K.Sahu, a resident of Telenga Bazar.

Under this drive, special attention is being given to removal of debris from the congested areas of the city, a CMC official said, adding that more vehicles had been pressed into service for lifting of solid waste during Dussehra.

Steps are being taken to ensure that silt and waste material are collected from market areas, commercial complexes and residential colonies and then disposed off at landfill sites.

A civic body health wing official said all public conveniences are being cleaned, washed and treated with disinfectants.

Anti-fly measures are also being taken. Special cleaning efforts are being made in slum areas.

The drive is also targeted at food hygiene. Food vendors have been asked to arrange for dustbins at their shops for disposing waste material, the official said.