TIRUCHY: Workday for sanitation workers began as early as 3 am on Monday as they began to clear the commercial streets and other areas of the city of trash left behind from Deepavali celebrations and sales. With several areas cleared of the waste by noon, corporation officials said almost all of it – which sources said is an additional 100 tonnes over and above the 450 tonnes the city usually generates -- would be removed the same day.
The sanitation workers began work at commercial areas like Big Bazaar Street, NSB Road and Singarathope early on Monday to clear plastic waste strewn around. A senior corporation official said, “By 10 am, we had cleaned up firecracker waste and other items from major roads.
However, as residents are likely to burst firecrackers and again discard it, we had to conduct multiple rounds of cleaning and inspections. We deal with such situations after festivals." Mentioning it common to witness streets like NSB Road and nearby commercial areas ridden with waste after Deepavali and Pongal, a sanitation worker said,
“The corporation should think about placing trash cans in these locations during such festivals and request traders to dump the waste in to them. These bins can be taken out later. Such a measure would facilitate easier post-festival cleaning in commercial areas." Relieved to not witness any downpour on Deepavali, sanitation worker Mani said,
“If it had rained, clearing garbage would have been extremely difficult and more time consuming." Karthikeyan, a garment dealer at NSB Road, too, expressed relief over no rain on Deepavali. “Our sales would have decreased if it had rained. It was worrying most of us but most of us had decent sales as it was a sunny day.”