Cleaning up after Diwali: Lucknow littered as sanitation staff go on extended holiday?
Mounds of garbage, unattended horticulture waste, and dust-laden roads continue to be a common sight
Several parts of the state capital continue to be littered with piles of garbage and uncleaned streets, exposing the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC).
Mounds of garbage, unattended horticulture waste, and dust-laden roads continue to be a common sight, indicating that the instructions issued ahead of Diwali and Chhath Puja did not translate into ground action.
Municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar on Thursday said that staff was scarce due to which the work was not done on time but now most of the staff has returned to work and the normal routine of road sweeping and waste collection will begin from Friday.
During an HT visit on Thursday (October 23), waste was found lying openly along the Vibhuti Khand stretch near Kisan Bazaar, under Zone 4 limits. The road leading to the railway line was littered with uncollected waste, with no sign of LMC cleaning staff.
“Even before Diwali, no one came to sweep or lift the garbage. The waste keeps piling up despite the Zone 4 office being hardly 500 meters away,” said Nitesh Patel, a shopkeeper from the area. He added that no senior official had inspected the site since the festival.
Similar scenes were witnessed under Zone 1, along the Sikander Bagh crossing to Rana Pratap Marg stretch, where garbage collected by sweepers had not been lifted.
“This is one of the busiest VIP routes of the city, yet garbage remains unattended. Thousands of people use this road daily, and even LMC’s top officials reside nearby,” said Harshit Rai, a commuter who travels through the stretch regularly.
In the Sadar area, the road heading towards Hussainganj crossing also presented a dismal picture, with garbage lying on pedestrian ramps and roadside corners. Residents said that sweepers had not been seen in the neighbourhood since Diwali.
