Coimbatore: Corporation speeds up work to clear festival waste

COIMBATORE: Diwali celebration has left behind a large quantity of waste on the streets and the city corporation has pressed its men and machinery into service to clear them and keep the city neat and tidy.
Large heaps of waste, especially that of firecrackers, could be seen on the city streets on Friday. Since the civic body worked with a slim workforce on the festive day, regular waste had also accumulated on the streets.
City health officer Dr Sathish Kumar said the garbage collection vehicles would make additional trips to clear the waste. He said they had instructed sanitary workers to collect cracker paper and polythene waste separately to make it easier for disposal. Pointing out that they hadn’t deployed additional workforce to clear garbage, the officer said the existing workers would work for longer hours.
“A section of them had worked on the festive day as well. They will be given compensatory off later. It had taken a week to collect the garbage that was generated during the Ayudha Puja. Diwali waste will be cleared sooner,” Kumar said.
Another corporation official said the city had generated 600-800 tonnes more waste during the Diwali. “We collect anywhere between 800-850 tonnes garbage on a normal day. Now that the festival has left behind a large quantity of waste, we are planning to collect around 1,000 tonnes waste a day so that the entire garbage could be cleared from the streets in three to four days.”
P Prema, a resident of Saibaba Colony, said she had cleared the waste accumulated on the road in front of her house and kept the same on the roadside to make it easier for the conservancy workers to clear the same. “Sanitary workers did not clear it on Friday. If it isn’t cleared soon, the waste will again spread out to the road.”