Devotees gather outside Gundicha temple in rain as chariots of Lord Jagannath and Goddess Subhadra (not in picture) reach the shrine in Puri on Thursday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal n See Page 7

Puri, July 11: A hundred and forty broom and shovel-wielding workers made the 2.5km stretch Bada Danda free of garbage within just six hours last night.

The Puri Municipality removed tonnes of garbage left behind by nearly nine lakh devotees and vendors who had thronged the city to witness rath yatra.

Chairperson of the civic body Shantilata Pradhan said: “It’s a Herculean task to make Grand Road free of garbage within six hours.” The bulk of the garbage consists of shoes, slippers, earthen pots, paper plates, plastic water bottles and used water pouches.

Tara Nayak, 38, along with his brother Kishore, 48, were the part of the army, who had been given the task to clean Bada Danda once the chariots passed through. “It’s a tough task to clean the road, especially during the festival time. Today, it became more difficult because the chariots were still on the road and did not reach the temple. We had to clean the road when there was people and vehicles on it,” said Tara.

Tara has been doing the job for 15 years, while his brother has been engaged in it for 24 years. “We are happy to be a part of the team. It has given us a rare opportunity to serve the Lord. I never regret taking up the job of cleaning the roads because Puri king Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, himself, carries out the same duty by sweeping the chariots in front of lakhs of people,” said Tara.

His brother echoed the same feeling. “Though we get Rs 200 as our remuneration, we never do the job just for the money. We do it for the love of the Lord.” he said.

Kishore said the entire team had been divided into several groups to clean the roads. “The entire task has been done manually. However, the evening rain had made our task difficult because there was sludge all around. Around 25,000 pairs of slippers were collected from the road.”

“They collected nearly 15 tractor loads of garbage from Bada Danda, which is nearly three times a normal day’s garbage collection. We decided to clean the road manually as the specially equipped machine used for the cleaning operation last year failed to properly clean the road,” said Pradhan, adding that even small pieces of garbage were cleaned to ensure a smooth ride for the rath.

“After collecting the garbage, we had sent it to the nearby garbage plant. The cleaning operation on Bada Danda will go on in a mission mode till suna besha is over. The workers have also been motivated to do the job. We have requested people not to dump garbage on the road.”

A municipality official said on the rath yatra day, they had collected between 70 and 80 tractor loads of garbage from the town. “Steps have also been taken to ensure that the beach remains cleaned,” she said.

Local residents appreciated the municipality’s efforts. “An unhygienic condition would have been created if the road was not properly cleaned. However, more efforts need to be given to clean up the lanes and bylanes of Puri,” said Binayak Rath, 64, a Puri resident.

Puri collector Naba Nayak said: “We have constituted a team under my supervision to look into the issue of cleaning Grand Road.”