The Hindu : Karnataka News : A thankless job after the festival of lights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 11, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

A thankless job after the festival of lights

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

DEEPAVALI DEBRIS: Keep your city clean is a mere slogan. The festival of lights is a nightmare for those involved in cleaning the roads. This was evident in Bangalore on Saturday when the BBMP struggled to cope with the task.

BANGALORE: Deepavali, the festival of lights, is definitely not celebration time for some sections of society. These people dread the few days during and after the festival. The reason — the debris and litter left outside houses by people.

A common sight one sees every Deepavali is the tonnes of “leftover” crackers or burnt-out confetti of “bombs”. These pourakarmikas have the back-breaking task of sweeping up the litter from the roads and drains. There is no protection in the form of gloves or other safety equipment to handle the chemicals from the firecrackers.

A few complain of burning eyes and limbs after they handled the fire crackers.

They say neither the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike nor the public are concerned about their plight. On the other hand, they say, the very people who dirty the roads promptly call up the corporator or health officials.

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