CHANDIGARH: While most of the residential streets are drowning in garbage from the recent 20 days of sanitation strike, various markets have also started showing the effect.

Heaps of garbage lie in the middle of the shopping spaces. From an eyesore, they have become a source of stink that forces passersby to cover their noses. Sector-40 resident Shanti Mathur told TOI: “There was a time we used to take pride in being the residents of Chandigarh, when it was clean and beautiful. How did we get to this point?”

The neighbourhood markets of Sectors 40, 43 and 22 have gathered maximum clutter. Sector 40 has a big garbage heap under a street lamp. The stench at the spot is unbearable. The heap includes rotten leaves and twigs mixed with plastic, paper waste, and leftovers from the kitchen. “This heap lies right outside my shop,” said barber Irfan. “Insects and mosquitoes hover over the dump. I don’t know why nobody comes and cleans it up. The corner of my residential street looks no different.”

Multiple heaps of garbage have appeared along the path to Shastri Market in Sector 22, and walking along is now difficult. The roadside vendors who have occupied the pavements also complain of lack of regular cleaning.

Parts of the Sector 8 and 7 markets on the elite north side of the city are strewn with garbage and uncollected plastic waste. “At times, sewage from the choked drains mixes with this garbage and creates a horrible sludge. It’s difficult to do business here all day,” street vendor Raju said.

The municipal corporation has gone back to the older system of garbage collection, and thing might return to normal in the city gradually. The effects of weeks of laxity might take months to wear off.

The garbage collectors went to strike on September 11 without giving any notice to the MC. They stopped garbage-lifting vehicles from entering the garbage processing plant at Daddumajra. Cops had to arrest 561 of the protesters and take them to the police stations in Sectors 34 and 39. For 20 days, neither collectors nor the municipal corporation had blinked.