By Vikash Kumar Sharma

Cuttack: Cuttack bid adieu to Goddess Durga with a grand Bhasani Utsav on Thursday, with immersion processions continuing until late Friday afternoon. However, the celebrations left heaps of garbage along major procession routes, raising concerns over sanitation and civic preparedness.

Thousands of devotees and Puja committee organisers participated in the immersion ceremony. While the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) deployed sanitation workers to maintain cleanliness, several stretches, including Buxi Bazar and Choudhary Bazar, were littered with piles of waste that occupied substantial portions of the roads.

The unattended garbage inconvenienced residents and commuters, while the accumulation of waste and foul smell raised concerns over public hygiene. CMC officials, however, maintained that sanitation workers had been engaged since early morning to clear the waste generated during the festivities.

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Mayor Subhas Singh said cleanup was progressing, though some roads remained inaccessible until the immersion processions concluded. “Most garbage has been cleared, but some routes remain uncleared as immersion processions continue,” Singh said.

He added that more than 200 sanitation workers, along with light machines and tractors, have been deployed for the cleanup. The civic body expects to clear the remaining waste across the city by Sunday, he said.

The post-festival cleanup has once again highlighted the challenge of maintaining sanitation during large public celebrations.