Udhampur residents infear of epidemic over garbage

Local residents have expressed fears of a possible outbreak of infectious diseases due to poor disposal of garbage in the city for the past few months.

Local residents have expressed fears of a possible outbreak of infectious diseases due to poor disposal of garbage in the city for the past few months.

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People have alleged apathy of the local municipality and district administration in this regard.

A spot check in the town revealed that the area is littered with piles of garbage and overflowing sewage that threaten outbreak of infectious diseases. People have expressed concern over the safety of children, saying they risk contracting diseases due to poor hygiene in the area.

They alleged that due to non-lifting of garbage on a regular basis by the sanitation staff of the municipal council, a majority of bins kept on roads have virtually turned into garbage dump and demanded immediate lifting of garbage from the town.

As winter vacation has started in schools, children play near garbage heaps, exposing them to health hazard, Rakesh Kumar, a local resident said.

Local shopkeepers of Gole market also raised concern over falling numbers of customers keeping off due to dump of garbage in front of our shops as there is no one to collect it. He said that one could easily gauge the effectiveness of the municipal corporation working and administrations' apathy that despite lapse of more than four months it failed to identify new dumping ground.

He said that it was quite amazing that despite protest by traders, residents and employees of chief medical officer, local municipality and district administration had turned a bling eye towards the problem that can increase the risk of an epidemic outbreak.

Parvesh Kumar, vice-chairman of Social Reform Charitable Organisation (SRCO), an NGO, said that after spending lakhs of rupees the district administration installed dumpers in various wards of city but to no avail.

On the condition of anonymity not to disclose name, a municipal official said that due to non-availability of dumping ground, they were facing this problem.