Dumping of construction materials on roads and pavements across
Capital city has become a cause of concern. Worse, sanitation officers
of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) have failed in monitoring
the situation.
This despite the fact that BMC has the power to
punish encroachers and impose penalty on them. Dumping of building
materials on public roads apart, discharging sewage also invites
penalty. As per the provisions, sanitation officer of a ward is
responsible for keeping a tab on this. After receipt of the complaint, a
warning is issued to the defaulter and if he does not pay heed, BMC
workers have the power to remove the materials and impose fine ranging
from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 on him.
Although BMC had initiated a major
drive in August last year to take people to task, it has remained a
one-time affair. The work was outsourced to a private firm and two
tractors were assigned to each ward to clear unwanted debris. Besides,
several squads were constituted to raids. Also people were asked to
inform the squad or BMC office in case of such civic nuisance.
As
on today, BMC does not have any plan to take up similar drive as they
claim of not receiving many complaints in the past few months. However,
BMC’s online complaint portal shows 12 such complaints this month and
none has been attended till date.
