Bhubaneswar, Oct. 25: Organisers of Durga Puja are finding it hard to dispose of garbage with the festivities coming to an end.

Though the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken steps to clean the areas in and around the pandals, heaps of garbage can still be spotted near various pandals. Large crowds during the immersion procession have also left in their wake piles of garbage along the Janpath.

According to corporation sources, nearly 440 metric tonnes per day (MTD) of solid waste is generated in the city, but during the Pujas an additional 150MTD of solid waste is generated. The corporation has been collecting garbage twice a day from near pandals but lifting it from temporary collection points only once a day. This has created a problem.

The areas near Saheed Nagar, Nayapalli and Rasulgarh puja pandals are the most affected ones as a large number of visitors have thronged these areas. “The corporation should not only collectgarbage at regular interval but also it needs to lift and dump the waste at least twice a day. The garbage creates sanitary problems,” said Harihar Acharya, a resident of Rasulgarh.

With Laxmi Puja scheduled on October 29, the members of various puja committees apprehend that the situation will worsen.

“Last year, the corporation had failed to collect garbage immediately after the Durga Puja, which created a lot of problems. This year we hope that all the areas lying close to the puja pandals will be kept clean so that we will be able to conduct other pujas smoothly,” said a member of Saheed Nagar Durga Puja Samiti.

The only respite during this year’s Puja was the active participation of the various puja committees to spruce up the pandal areas. Most of the puja committees have deployed manpower to collect garbage from the pandal surroundings. The temporary eateries set up near various pandals are the major contributors to garbage generation during the Puja. The resistance of local residents to dumping of waste at the VSS Nagar dump yard of the BMC has added to the problem.

“The dumping yard at Bhuasuni has become packed. But the resistance of local residents to dumping garbage in the yard near Sainik School has become a major problem,” said a BMC official.

However city health officer Chandrika Prasad Das said the corporation had taken all kinds of measures to ensure cleanliness during and after the Puja.