Garbage dumped on Rourkela Main Road and (above) at Civil Township. Pictures by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Sept. 11: Lack of a garbage dump yard in the city has forced the municipality, Rourkela Steel Plant and the East Coast Railway to dispose of their waste in the open, triggering resentment among residents.

The practice has also led the authorities to get concerned over pollution. An open area in front of Biju Pattnaik University Technology (BPUT) on Jail Road has turned almost into a dump yard with the garbage piling up on roadside. Once the dumped rubbish gets rotten, the place begins to stink.

“One can spot heaps of garbage being dumped at open spaces beside the main road, civil township, Mahatab Road and near the BPUT office. It is an eyesore and creates an unhygienic atmosphere. Despite several complaints, no action has yet been taken to find a permanent solution to the problem of solid waste management,” said Udit Nagar resident Rohit Sharma.

In the past four years, the Rourkela Municipality has received Rs 4 crore from the state government for solid waste management, but it has not made any headway in this regard. Earlier, the civic body’s efforts to find a suitable place for disposing of solid waste had met with failure.

The civic body had identified a plot at Balughat and constructed a boundary wall for the purpose of dumping solid wastes there. But as soon as the municipality workers started dumping wastes there, local residents protested and the Odisha State Pollution Control Board rejected the site. The board had said there was a possibility of waste spilling into the Brahmani river.

The municipality and the Rourkela Steel Plant then chose another place near the airstrip for the purpose, but there was objection again from the board, which slapped a show cause notice on them.

With a population of over three lakh, the city generates around 150 metric tonnes of solid waste everyday. But lack of waste management creates headache for the authorities. The steel plant authorities said work on the solid waste management was going on.