Fair & Ugly:

104 days of Kumbh have left a trail of garbage and stink, reports P.S. Chauhan:

Though on April 28, the Maha Kumbh has come to an end but the mega event has left tonnes of stinking filth and garbage behind it, which will take weeks to get disposed. And now it is a tough task to dispose this trash and to restore city's hale. Indeed, sanitation mess needs to be cleared at the earliest. The condition was not that bad when Kumbh started but as the event came to an end it has worsened. Though devotees have been flocking ever since Kumbh started in January but these hordes of pilgrims were manageable and it wasn't a Herculean task to maintain healthy hygiene conditions and concerned authorities did not face any challenge. But the last two months of the Kumbh saw a surge in the number of devotees and sanitation conditions started to worsen. Stats say that nearly eight crore devotees congregated in the city during the mega fair. Beside huge discharge of human excreta, a large quantity of polythene and plastic items brought by the pilgrims and an equally large amount of organic and inorganic waste of crockery and other items that were used in thousands of tents, ashrams and akharas for bhandaras and mass feasting, has brought sanitation on the brink of collapse. The disposal of the bio-medical waste of the temporary mela hospitals and the inorganic waste of polythene and plastics, which has got mixed with the organic waste, is posing a big threat as well. The health officer of the city, Dr. Anil Tyagi admits that during the snans nearly 5-6 thousand tonnes of garbage has piled up in Kumbh area.

Heaps of filth and garbage have become a common sight in Shankaracharya Nagar, Mahamandleshwar Nagar and Gaur Shankar Dweep. The worst hit are Bairagi camp and Daksh Dweep, where sanitation conditions have virtually collapsed. Here roads have turned into pools of mud and dirty water, providing a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies. The temporary toilets made in the Kumbh area have got choked and the sewer pits are overflowing.

The entire Kumbh mela area is stinking and it is difficult to pass through without covering one's face. Forget mela area even at Brahmpuri, Saptsarover, Bhopatwala, Laljiwala, Balawala, Satighat, Rajghat, Kadachh Mohalla the condition is no different. The state urban development minister and the minister in-charge of the Kumbh, Madan Kaushik visited several areas in the city and instructed the health officials to expedite their work. If the filth is not cleaned soon then danger of breaking out of an epidemic looms large. Hundreds of patients of diarrhea are being admitted every day in the hospitals. Brijendra Harsh, who is associated with the Prakhar Mission Hospital Services, a voluntary organisation, says that 90 per cent of these patients are suffering from cholera or diarrhea. Dr. Anil Tyagi says that the city will soon be rid of filth. The Kumbh mela health officer, Dr. S.P. Agarwal says that more than 9,000 sanitary workers with 36 trolleys are working in three shifts to clear the heaps of filth and garbage which is being dumped in the trenching grounds at Kangri and near the Jatwara bridge at Jwalapur. The Kumbh mela officer, Anand Vardhan himself inspected the Mahamandleshwar Nagar and the adjoining areas and issued strict instrucitons to the officials of the health department to clear the entire mela area of garbage at the earliest.