Patna: Garbage heaps, overflowing community bins and a lingering stench marked the third day of the sanitation workers’ strike across several parts of the city on Saturday.Household waste has remained uncollected since Thursday, with garbage piling up at street corners, ward collection points and residential neighbourhoods. Intermittent drizzles worsened the situation, turning waste into foul-smelling sludge. Door-to-door waste collection has come to a standstill, pushing the city into a severe sanitation crisis.At a girls’ hostel in Anandpuri, hostel cook Shiv said the suspension of door-to-door collection had created an unhygienic situation. “A large amount of waste has accumulated over the last three days. The disposal point near the gate is overflowing, and the smell has spread across the hostel premises,” he said.Residents in other localities echoed similar concerns. “The rain is making things worse. Garbage lying on the roads has turned into sludge, and dirty water has spread through the neighbourhood. The entire area smells foul,” said Sanjay Verma, a resident of Khazanchi Road.An elderly woman living alone near S K Puri Park said she depended entirely on the municipal waste collection service. “I have no one to help me dispose of the garbage. Waste is piling up inside the house, and the smell is becoming unbearable. With mosquitoes increasing during the monsoon, I am worried about diseases like dengue,” said Vibha Devi.Confirming that approximately 8,000 sanitation workers were participating in the strike, PMC Joint Employees Coordination Committee president Chandra Prakash Singh alleged that several issues raised by workers could be resolved by the civic body itself. “PMC can prepare and maintain a merit list of daily-wage workers, assign work according to qualifications and forward eligible cases for regularisation against vacant posts. There are solutions within the corporation’s powers, but there has been little action. The strike will continue until workers’ concerns are addressed,” he said.Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) Yashpal Meena said efforts were being made to minimise the impact of the strike. “We have ensured cleaning of all principal roads in the city and are continuously requesting sanitation workers to resume duty. They are the backbone of this urban local body, and the upkeep and maintenance of the municipality depend heavily on them,” he said.
