For over a month-and-a-half, residents of Lake Town, Nagerbazar, Bangur Avenue and Dum Dum, in South Dum Dum municipality, are having to live with garbage piling up in roadside vats. The stench is unbearable, even for the passersby.

?My house is close to a vat, where garbage accumulates every day. Things were never like this earlier. It is difficult now to stay indoors even for a minute. No one can believe how we have to suffer,? complained Archana Chatterjee, resident of Dum Dum Park Tank II, on Wednesday.

Over 20 schools, two municipal hospitals, several nursing homes and more than 150,000 people have had to live through the ordeal, as the municipality authorities are unable to collect garbage from the vats on a regular basis.

The reason: the present dumping ground is overflowing and the municipality has not made alternative arrangements.

The dumping ground at Pramod Nagar, near Dum Dum, has a capacity of over 20,000 metric tonnes.

The garbage dumped there includes solid waste and non-biodegradable material like plastic and poly vinyl chloride.

?Where can we dump 120 tonnes of garbage collected daily from the municipal area?? asked Kajal Guha, member of chairman-in-council of the municipality.

The municipality, he told Metro, has initiated a dialogue with the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for permission to fill up a pond near the dumping ground.

?We can use the pond as a dumping ground after filling it up,? Guha explained.

CMDA chief executive officer P.S. Babiskar, however, said: ?As pond is used for pisciculture, it is difficult for us to convert it into a dumping ground overnight. Until the government gives us permission, we can?t do anything.?

According to officials, removal of garbage from nearly 250 vats in the area is next to impossible without a place to dump it. Construction of high-rises in the municipal area has compounded the problem.

Municipal chairman Srihir Bhattacharya said the civic body-owned dumping ground at Pramod Nagar is also being used by the North Dum Dum, Baranagar and Rajarhat municipalities.

The municipality, in collaboration with the CMDA, has set up a small solid waste disposal unit in the dumping ground to carve out space by separating biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.