Residents of Sindri, one of the oldest industrial towns of the country, are fed up with the poor state of basic amenities, including regular disruption in power and water supply, bad roads and piles of garbage.

Residents held a demonstration on Tuesday under the banner of CPI(M) in support of a 10-point charter of demands that include regular sprinkling of bleaching powder across colonies, immediate repair of over 80km of roads within the township, installation of street lights, regular supply of water and the renovation of the town’s only crematorium.

A meeting of residents was also held under the chairmanship of former public relation officer of Sindri, Sewa Singh, who is also president of All India FCI VSS employees Association. They said it was hard to imagine that a Rs 6,500cr fertiliser factory is coming up at the site of the old Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI) factory which closed down in 2002.

President of Sindri Chamber of Commerce Deepak Kumar said Sindri used to be one of the best townships of the country during the heydays of FCI. “We would get water supplied five times in 24 hours and there was regular electricity too. It was also one of the cleanest towns,” he said.

Residents, under the banner of the CPI(M) hold a demonstration near Dhanbad Municipal Corporation’s Sindri block office to demand better civic amenities on Tuesday.

Kumar, who is also the president of a citizens’ organization called Sindri Bachao Morcha, said things turned bad after the factory shut down in 2002. “Things have turned worse as Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC), which came into existence more than 10 years ago, could barely manage to maintain water and power supply,” he said.

Dhanbad corporation was no longer able to execute cleanliness drills because of which Sindri town had turned into one big garbage dumping ground. “This adds to the risk in the time of a pandemic. And organisations like FCI and DMC are busy blaming each other,” he added.

FCI general manager Ravi Kant Prasad said, “Since DMC is collecting taxes from households and operating here, road repairs, cleanliness and installation of streetlights are its responsibilities. We, on the other hand, are looking after water supply and general maintenance.”

Executive officer of DMC’s Sindri circle Mina Minz blamed the people of the town for littering the area. “Garbage is being collected by a Hyderabad-based agency, Ramky Enviro Engineers, as a part of a solid waste management project. But lack of awareness among people is also responsible to an extent for the town remaining dirty,” she said.