Careless dumping of garbage near residential colonies and public places by Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) is making the lives of coal town residents a living hell.

The situation is the worst at Bartand bus depot, located less than 500 metres from the Dhanbad District Collectorate.

The depot — from where more than 120 interstate, inter-district and local buses operate every day — has turned into smelly mess because of its location close to a temporary DMC disposal site with no clear demarcation between the two.

Passengers and residents of nearby localities such as Jayprakash Nagar are compelled to live with the foul smell.

Trash also keeps piling up at Baniahir in Jharia, about 12km from Dhanbad, where a temporary dumping site has been developed by DMC.

Filth lies strewn on Dharamshala Road, Sindri Road and near Thana Mor is Jharia.

Madhurendra Singh, a shop keeper at Bartand and a member of Dhanbad Child Line, said: “We have protested against the dumping of garbage in violation of norms on several occasions, but to no avail. Diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and dengue can spread easily in such unhygienic conditions.”

For Debashish Das, a resident of Sugiyadih (Dhanbad) and a clerk at Tenughat court in Bokaro, the daily commute is synonymous with an assault on his sense of smell.

DMC city manager (sanitation) Bijay Kumar said: “We had developed a temporary garbage dumping site near our parking lot adjacent to the Bartand but depot. However, the garbage is not being dumped there for over a month following Ramky Enviro Engineers taking over the door-to-door collection under the Integrated Solid Waste Management project. In fact, the trash is now being shifted from Bartand to Baniahir in Jharia where the dumping site is away from human habitation. Within a week, Bartand bus depot will be free from garbage.

Project director of Ramky Enviro Engineers, Pranab Kumar Pattnaik, said they were currently collecting garbage from doorsteps in 19 wards of Dhanband and Jharia circles.

“The garbage is dumped at the four compactor stations where the water is squeeze out before the waste is transported to Baniahir. We will finally take away all the garbage to a land fill site at Sindri where around 40 acres have been allotted by DMC.”