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.