Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) completed an extensive post-Durga Puja cleanup drive across the City Saturday.
Early in the morning, sanitation workers from all three zones conducted intensive cleaning at various puja pandals following a pre-planned schedule.
BMC Mayor Sulochana Das, Commissioner Chanchal Rana, Additional Commissioners Ratnakar Sahoo and Kailash Chandra Sahu, along with zonal and assistant commissioners, corporators, engineers, and senior officials, visited multiple pandals to oversee the cleanup drive.
The entire operation was coordinated by Deputy Commissioner N. Ganesh Babu.
Members of puja committees and local residents actively participated in the city-wide sanitation drive.
To restore normal traffic and public movement, BMC teams removed temporary stalls, trolleys, and handcarts from roads and surrounding areas.
Additional sanitation workers were deployed to ensure all pandals were cleaned within 24 hours of idol immersion, and two scrap dealers encroaching near the Sahid Nagar puja site were evicted.
BMC directed event management teams dismantling decorative gates and structures to exercise maximum caution to prevent accidents or electrical hazards.
Officials were instructed to coordinate with the electricity department staff whenever necessary.
The civic body stated that the mass cleanliness drive has grown into a community-led public movement, expressing gratitude to residents and puja committees for their support.
Meanwhile, temporary ponds dug for idol immersion have been cleaned, and control rooms set up near each pond ensured smooth and safe immersion operations.
PNN