Rajbiraj, October 23

Though millions of rupees are being spent on sanitation every year, waste management continues to remain a challenge in Rajbiraj Municipality, Saptari.

The municipality spent Rs 5.833 million on sanitation-related activities in the last fiscal.

“Though the municipality has been spending millions of rupees in the name of sanitation, nothing has come out of it so far,” said Civil Network Saptari chair Sukharam Yadav. Though elected local representatives vowed to make the town clean, nothing has been done towards that end, Yadav added.

“Local representatives should have prioritised the issue, but they seem least concerned,” said a local trader Mohammad Samim of Hatiya, Rajbiraj Municipality-7, who also expressed anger at the municipality for not collecting garbage on time.

On the one hand, the municipality has failed to make the locals aware of garbage management despite frequently-run sanitation campaigns, while on the other hand, it has failed to manage garbage collection sites and timely collect of garbage piled up on the streets in town areas. On his part, the municipality’s Sanitation Section in-charge Ram Kumar Yadav attributed poor garbage management to the lack of staff. “We are short of manpower. This is why timely collection and removal of garbage has become difficult,” he said, adding, they have just 22 sanitation staffers.

Mayor Shambhu Prasad Yadav said the municipality was preparing a special plan for effective  garbage management.