Police monitor crowd movements on screen at the Control Room next to the Attukal Bhagavathy temple during the Pongala festival in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
Hardly an hour after the Attukal Pongala ended, the sanitation workers of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation fanned out across the city to clean up the debris left behind after the festivities. By night, all the accumulated waste was cleared from most of the major roads, while some of the smaller bylanes remained to be cleared. The Corporation also supplied 6.5 lakh litres of drinking water on the Attukal Pongala day.
Although the amount of plastic waste generated has come down over the years after the civic body enforced a green protocol for the Pongala, plastic waste including carry bags were seen dumped at some places. By late evening, the sanitation workers removed over a hundred truck loads of waste from the city’s streets. Mounds of waste, including partially burnt wood, plantain leaves, plastic bags, newspapers, and ash were taken away.
Mayor Arya Rajendran, Health Standing Committee Chairperson Gayathri Babu and other Corporation officials inaugurated the cleaning activities near the Attukal temple. A total of 150 vehicles, including trucks and pickup autorickshaws, were used to clear up the waste which was spread out over 30 wards which comes under the festival area.
3,204 workers
The main thoroughfare from Palayam to East Fort was washed down on Thursday night. But on the other roads, ash remained to be cleaned. The Corporation deployed 3,204 sanitation workers for clean-up activities, including the collection of bricks used in the makeshift hearths for Attukal Pongala. The bricks will be used for constructing houses for the families identified as extremely poor.
Minister for Local Self Governments M.B. Rajesh lauded the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation for cleaning up the roads in the capital cities within hours of the festival ending.
Published – March 13, 2025 09:37 pm IST
