Puja festivities leave mounds of garbage in Tiruchi

Garbage piles up in Tiruchi due to continuous holidays, Ayudha Puja festivities. Heaps of waste seen in Singarathope, NSB Road, Big Bazaar Street, Chinnakadai Street, Nandi Koil Street, Bheema Nagar, Woraiyur, Gandhi Market, Sathara Veedhi in Srirangam. 1,100 tonnes of garbage produced on Mon & Tues, 10-15% more than avg. Special scheme devised to clear garbage, but holidays delay removal. Garbage disposal to normal on Wed as entire force of sanitary workers report for duty.

Continuous holidays for sanitary workers and Ayudha Puja festivities in the city have caused mounds of garbage on streets and commercial areas.

Heaps of garbage were seen in Singarathope, NSB Road, Big Bazaar Street, Chinnakadai Street, Nandi Koil Street, Bheema Nagar, Woraiyur, Gandhi Market and others. Sathara Veedhi in Srirangam, one of the biggest flower markets in Tiruchi, also witnessed mounds of garbage due to the traders and people thronging in large numbers to buy flowers and garlands to celebrate Ayutha Pooja and Saraswathi Pooja. The traders had left behind huge volume of waste along the entire stretch of Sathara Veedhi after the end of three hectic business days.

Similarly, garbage was seen piled up in and around Gandhi Market. Discarded and unsold plantain and mango leaves and plastic carry bags were found in the heaps. It was the scene in most of the thickly populated areas in the city, where seasonal traders and farmers set up road side shops to make the most of demand in the festival season.

According to sources in Tiruchi Corporation, the city has produced more than 1,100 tonnes on Monday and Tuesday. It was about 10% to 15% more than the average generation of garbage a day.

Though the Corporation devised a special scheme to clear the garbage, the practical difficulty in engaging the sanitary workers on holidays was said to have delayed the removal of the garbage. It is said that being holidays on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday only a section of workers reported for duty on Tuesday. While a group of workers worked on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, another group of workers worked until 2 p.m. on Tuesday. They mainly concentrated on important roads and streets and Ghandhi market and the Central Bus Stand.

“Despite constraints in view of the holidays, we have managed to remove garbage on important roads, streets and junctions,” said an official of the Corporation.

He said the city would continue to generate a huge volume of waste until Saturday as the people would usually dump the dried leaves and plantains a few days after Ayudha puja. However, the garbage disposal mechanism would come to normal as the entire force of sanitary workers would report for duty on Wednesday.