MADURAI: The Madurai Corporation on Monday intensified its sanitation operations across the city to clear the additional garbage accumulated during Deepavali celebrations, deploying heavy machinery and vehicles at major commercial and residential areas.
The civic body removed 128.40 tonnes of garbage by noon on Monday (Nov 9) and around 137 t on Deepavali day (Nov 8). The festival season waste generation would be 200 t more than the usual per day waste accumulation of 800-900 t per day.
Special cleaning operations were carried out in and around the Meenakshi Amman Temple, covering the Chithirai, Avani Moola, Masi and Veli streets. Other major locations included Vilakkuthoon junction, Teppakulam, Mattuthavani bus stand, the northern and southern banks of the Vaigai river, Bypass Road and several other garbage accumulation points across the city.
Eleven JCB machines, five Bobcats, nine tippers and 42 tractors were deployed during the morning shift to expedite the clearance of accumulated waste.
These were deployed in addition to the vehicles involved in routine primary waste collection across the city, civic officials said.
However, residents alleged that the waste clean-up is lacking in newly added areas to the city. “Cracker waste can be seen on the Avaniyapuram main road and almost all the other roads. The corporation could at least clear these waste dumps in the open area,” said T Danial, an Avaniyapuram resident.
The clean-up drive was inaugurated and participated in by Mayor-in-charge T Nagarajan and Corporation Commissioner Gaurav Kumar. Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) also joined the initiative.
