Garbage dumped on Bali yatra ground in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 20: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) now faces an uphill task to remove the huge quantity of garbage from the Bali yatra ground. Though the event came to an end last Friday, efforts are yet to be initiated by the corporation to clean up the 37 acres where over 1,300 kiosks had come up this year.

One can now find garbage, including paper and polythene wrappers, littered across the ground, particularly at the Quila Maidan, where youngsters regularly play cricket.

“The entire place now looks like a dump yard as one can find a lot of waste paper and polythene scattered all over the place. Though the civic body had announced that the fair would be completely eco-friendly, it seems that no stringent measures were taken to ban polythene,” said Saurabh Sahu, a commuter.

Although the bulk of the traders from various parts of the state and country have already left, many are still packing up their belongings, which is causing delay in carrying out the cleaning drive on the ground.

A massive drive would be launched in a couple of days to sanitise the venue, said CMC officials.

“As a large portion of the Bali yatra ground, including Quila Maidan, is still occupied by traders, there has been a delay in carrying out sweeping and removal of waste,” said city health officer S. Gadanayak.

Despite this, solid waste is gradually being lifted from the ground. Also, a massive cleaning drive would be launched in which an additional 60 sweepers would be engaged to clean up the area.

It would then be decided whether there is a need to further sanitise the place, Gadanayak added.

The corporation had earlier faced difficulties in removal of the solid waste generated at Bali yatra a day after the fair registered a record 12 lakh visitors on November 13.

“There was utter mess at the Bali yatra ground which saw a record turnout of visitors recently. Till afternoon, the bulk of waste generated from the fair could not be lifted,” said Janardhan Sahu, a resident of Deula Sahi.

However, CMC officials said that nobody had anticipated such a heavy rush and steps were immediately taken towards removal of garbage by deploying additional sweepers from various wards in the city.

The district administration has also decided to chalk out special plans to deal with the heavy rush and measures for better crowd control and traffic management during Bali yatra next year.