PMC still not ready to clean city before festivals

PATNA: The city which has lived through horrible filth and garbage during Durga Puja may have to brace up to face the same fate this festival of lights. For, the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is still not well prepared to clean Patna before the upcoming festival.
On Exhibition Road (near Chiraiyatand) five overflowing bins of garbage have not been cleared for the last five days."No one comes to have refreshments at my stall due to garbage. It has affected earnings of all roadside stalls here," said a roadside vendor Manoj Gupta on Exhibition Road.
There are two other spots in the same thoroughfare which apart from giving a tough time to passersby also causes frequent jams.
At a link road on Fraser Road, people cannot go to their apartments on foot. "Throughout the alley garbage is strewn everywhere and gutter water keeps flowing on the road. No one walks here for the last five months," said Pranav Jha, a resident.
Piles of garbage also can be seen lying near Patna University and Dental Hospital on Ashok Rajpath, Montessori School and the vegetable market on Boring Road. Apart from city's main thoroughfares thickly populated localities like Lohanipur, Mithapur, Kankerbagh, Hanuman Nagar, Mahendru, Machhua Toli, Kadamkuan and Rajbansi Nagar among others have accepted garbage as their destiny.
"It is useless to complain to PMC officials. It is our fate to live with filth and garbage," said Atma Rajak, a shop owner in Lohanipur.
Bad has come to worse at city's general post office. "We have permanently closed our window facing the road (western side) due to foul smell emanating from heaps of garbage outside the office. Many of our colleagues work with handkerchief on their noses. Many employees of the accounts section have fallen sick due to heaps of waste and unhygienic conditions prevailing there. We have met the PMC commissioner and other officials. But to no avail," said a senior postal department official.
But PMC officials are hammering out huge hopes to city dwellers. "We will clean the city, this time, the way we cleaned it during Durga Puja. All circles will be asked to run special campaigns," was all a senior PMC official, who did not want to be named, told this reporter.
In the wake of pathetic civic condition, Patna commissioner K P Ramaiah has asked PMC commissioner Pankaj K Pal to expedite sanitation service.
"Patnaites have to face garbage due to the suspension of sanitation work by a private agency. Diwali is not far away. I have reviewed the civic condition in the city which is poor. I have asked officials concerned to take all necessary measures to ensure that the city is clean before the festival of lights," Ramaiah told TOI.
On Friday, he held a meeting with the PMC commissioner and his deputies and reviewed city's civic service. At the meeting, where the cleaning of river ghats was also discussed, Ramaiah instructed the PMC commissioner to hire additional manpower and put in place additional machinery so that waste does not hamper festive spirits.
After the meeting, PMC additional commissioner Chandrama Singh told TOI that tender for cleaning of Chhath ghats would be issued on Saturday. "We have been asked to make ghats clean five days prior to Diwali. Within a couple of days we will allot the work to the agencies," he added.
A meeting of the PMC Standing Committee will be held on Tuesday to make lighting arrangement in all 72 wards of the municipality.
Ramaiah, DM inspect ghats
Senior officials, including Patna commissioner K P Ramaiah, Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Singh and PMC commissioner Pankaj K Pal, reviewed the status of river ghats on Friday morning. They expressed dissatisfaction over the condition of ghats. The ghats which draw the largest number of devotees are the dirtiest.
"At Mahendru, Collectorate, Krishna and other ghats, I saw garbage everywhere. It is a tough task and authorities will have to start early," Ramaiah said.