Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) mayor Atiqul Islam has announced that sacrificial animal waste will be removed within six hours this Eid-ul-Azha.

He made the announcement on 12 June at Gabtoli in the capital, at a ceremony adding 32 new dump trucks and 8 modern compactor trucks to the corporation's waste management fleet.

The mayor said: "Last year, with everyone's effort, the North City Corporation removed sacrificial waste within eight hours. This time our target is to remove it within six hours. With 40 trucks added, waste removal will be faster this year. The 8 modern compactor trucks can remove 10 times more waste than ordinary trucks. By compacting it, these trucks can carry a lot of waste at once."

He said the 32 dump trucks and 8 compactor trucks had been bought with the DNCC's own funds.

With these trucks, he said, the corporation will be able to remove about 350 tonnes of additional waste a day. "Adding these vehicles at a cost of about Tk 30 crore from our own funds proves the DNCC's growing capacity. The prime minister has directed that city corporations must stand on their own feet, and we are moving ahead in line with that directive."

Saying all preparations had been made to remove the waste within six hours, the mayor said more than 10,000 workers would work on waste removal during Eid, and 10 lakh 40 thousand polythene bags were being distributed. Enough bleaching powder, Savlon, baskets and phenyl had also been supplied. "Councillors and DNCC workers will be in the field round the clock. I will be in the field myself. I request the public not to dump sacrificial waste everywhere, but to leave it at the designated places. With the public's cooperation, as last time, we will remove the sacrificial waste within the set six hours."

Answering a journalist's question, the mayor said action would be taken against lessees who broke the rules by setting up markets on roads, and the 10 per cent security money held would be forfeited. "In other years we have seen that lessees do not remove market waste quickly. So this year we have deducted a cleaning fee, and city corporation workers will clean up the markets on time."

Also present were DNCC Chief Engineer Brigadier General Md Moin Uddin, Chief Health Officer Brigadier General Imrul Kayes Chowdhury, Chief Waste Management Officer Captain Mohammad Fida Hasan and other officials.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.