CUTTACK:  The organic waste converter plant at Chhatra Bazaar, the city’s biggest vegetables and fruits wholesale market, has been lying idle even after four months of its inauguration.The compost plant cannot be made operational due to lack of manpower for collection of biodegradable waste generated from the market.

As per reports, over 800 vegetables and fruits traders make business at Chhatra Bazaar which generates over 20 tonnes of waste per day. Due to poor garbage disposal facility, the vendors throw the left-over and rotten vegetables and fruits on the roadside, polluting the surroundings. Even some vendors dump the waste in Taladanda canal.

In order to make the canal free from rotting vegetable waste, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) had decided to set up an organic waste converter unit at Chhatra Bazaar in collaboration with Tata Trust. 
The foundation stone of the plant was laid by former Housing and Urban Development Minister Niranjan Pujari on August 31, 2017. While the civic body constructed a building, the Tata Trust provided the organic waste converter machine worth `19 lakh from its CSR fund. 

The plant was inaugurated by Sports and Youth Services Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera during the celebration of Local Self-Governance Day on August 31, 2018. But, after a trial run, the plant has been closed for the last four months. 

When contacted, both the CMC Commissioner and Mayor said they were unaware of the reason why the plant was not functioning. Junior Executive of Tata Trust Tapan Kumar Parida, however, clarified that the CMC had engaged three sanitation workers who later hesitated to deal with waste and garbage. “We have already started arranging manpower on outsourcing basis,” said Parida.