The Decccan Chronicle 19.10.2010
Post-fest trash piles up on streetsOct. 18: After the lavishness, the litter. Days of pomp, pageantry and processions have left in their wake, piles of leftover plantain twigs which had been brought for sale on the eve of Ayudha puja on Friday. These, along with other garbage from the festivities, remain strewn on city roads, a reminder that BBMP has yet to perform its clean-up duties.
While Bengaluru south zone alone generates 1,500 metric tonnes of garbage per day, after the festival, the garbage load has doubled, said BBMP official sources. Exacerbating the situation were street kids and pavement dwellers trying to extract the leaves from dumped twigs and stray cattle vying for a piece of the action by nosing in to grab their bite. Their efforts left the twigs scattered all over the roads, hindering pedestrian movement and in some places even slowing the free flow of traffic.
Banana leaves used to serve food during the festival, remained piled high in garbage bins, emitting an unpleasant odor and attracting stray dogs and flies.
While complaints from across the city flooded the BBMP control room right from Sunday morning, the Commissioner of BBMP, Siddaiah, had already issued directions to clear the accumulated litter on Sunday itself, as per BBMP official sources.
But, while the plantain twigs continued to remain on the roads even on Monday afternoon, the officials claimed that they had started the clean-up process from Monday morning and had even worked half-day on Sunday.
“People prefer buying the plantain twigs and its leaves on roadsides rather than in the markets. While it costs the same amount for the merchants to carry the load of plantain twigs back, they abandon the leftovers which haven’t been sold out. It is the same problem at every Ayuda pooja, where the twigs are used to decorate vehicles. We had even issued appeals in the media not to dump the leftover plantain twigs on the roads after festivals. Despite this we now have double the load of garbage, much more than our capacity,” a BBMP official explained.
