HYDERABAD, Oct 18: Because of unwillingness of sanitation workers and officers of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) to carry out their duties and lack of logistics, main city areas remained littered with offal, garbage and other waste of sacrificial animals during the three days of Eid causing a great deal of inconvenience to the people.

The HMC, which now covers two main talukas of City and Latifabad after separation of Qasimabad as a separate municipality, has to look after 20 union councils in the City and 17 UCs in Latifabad taluka.

The situation, however, remained at its worse during the three days of Eid despite HMC claims that it had operated vehicles and tractor-trolleys to remove offal from main roads and streets.

The HMC is already badly hit by poor funding resources as its employees are often seen resorting to agitation for payment of their salaries.

Still, HMC sources believe that corruption in the shape of preparation of fake bills by contractors in collusion with officials of accounts and other branches continues to plague the civic body.

“The HMC management had decided to remove garbage on the night of Eidul Azha to normalise situation so that people have a feel-good factor on first day of Eid but I myself visited different areas [in City taluka] and was quite disturbed by the situation,” said an official.

According to HMC sources, Rs600,000 was withdrawn especially for running private tractor trolleys in each UC of City taluka, but these trolleys were not seen in required numbers in UCs.

“Twenty trolleys in addition to garbage lifting vehicles were to be seen in the areas but hardly 10 were brought in and that didn’t cater to the sanitation needs of people,” the sources said.

Visits to different areas in the City and Latifabad showed that the people had to brave stench of offal which after mixing with garbage had disturbed them greatly.

The situation in the streets was too bad as sanitation workers did not regularly visit these streets.

Until Friday prayers, offal and waste of animals were seen on Al-Rahim shopping, Pucca Qilla road (from Goods Naka side), Phulelli, Liaquat Colony, Noorani Basti, Teen number Talab, Pinyari, unit numbers 8, 10 and 11.

The garbage that littered the streets included feed for animal bought by people which was thrown along the road and streets.

Speaking to Dawn, the people also shared the blame as they didn’t even try to dispose of offal at suitable places and threw it on roadsides.

A few garbage lifting vehicles were seen in Liaquat Colony and Phulelli areas but, because of lack of the required number of workforce and logistics the situation remained awful, they added.

Liaquat colony drain coming from Goods Naka area was filled with huge amount of silt and its connected roads remained submerged by sewage.

“Small drains in Ghausia Masjid area were overflowing and garbage littered the area,” said Ghulam Hussain Arain, a former area councillor.

He said that the HMC staff was seen in the area but it appeared as if they didn’t have resources at their disposal to clean the locality.

Garbage skips placed by the HMC sanitation section on different roads were full with garbage and offal until Friday prayers and no one turned up to empty them.

According to HMC sources, health section in-charge of the HMC, who belongs to a political party, “remained preoccupied with his ‘dual’ assignments and obviously cannot concentrate on his basic official responsibility”.

An official said: “Our non-Muslim staffers of sanitation section are going to have holidays for two days and then there will be Sunday so people will have to brave insanitation in coming days too.”

He said that since dumper truck and loaders didn’t remove garbage before Eidul Azha, situation became serious in subsequent days.

Situation in Qasimabad remained relatively better, though waste of slaughtered animals was seen in some parts of it.

As far as Latifabad is concerned same insanitation was seen there especially in unit-12 Latifabad where a vegetable and fruit market is organised regularly.

Waste of slaughtered animals dotted areas in Latifabad unit numbers 8, 10, 11 and 12. Main thoroughfares like Barkat Bhai Town road to Khuda Hafiz Board area were hit by heaps of filth and garbage.

The residents complained that they used Khuda Hafiz road for going to their workplaces, but it had become difficult for them to pass through the area without braving the stench of offal.

According to a resident, Munawar Khan of unit-10 Latifabad, two days have passed but no vehicle of the HMC visited the locality around Comprehensive High School to remove filth.

HMC administrator Barkat Rizvi couldn’t be reached for comments as his cell phone remained switched off.

The official line of HMC has always been this that it is hit by poor releases of funds and cut in its share of octroi and zila tax. But sources within the HMC told Dawn that in terms of sanitation officials concerned get garbage vehicles repaired on a daily basis to claim ‘expenses’ but despite that these vehicles were not seen on roads.

“Expenses in different heads of the HMC are being shown through bills, but practically such expenditures do not match with the situation on the ground,” he said.