The city administration may be doing its bit for a “Swachha Odisha, Sustha Odisha” with a sewage treatment plant being inaugurated on Friday, but clearing of municipal solid waste remains a problem area.

There are allegations that the three private sanitary agencies engaged by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation for solid waste management are not performing up to expectations.

The civic body had engaged three sanitary agencies — PMR, Ramky and Jagruti — for maintaining cleanliness in the city.

While the PMR looks after 14 wards, Ramky does the job for 15 and Jagruti looks after 28 municipal wards.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation looks after the rest 10 wards.

Several councillors raised the issue with mayor Ananta Narayan Jena as residents complain to them about the stinking and unhygienic environment triggered by the agencies’ poor performance.

Situation is getting worse at several posh and central areas of the city, including Nayapalli, Saheed Nagar, Satya Nagar, Patia, Chandrasekharpur and Ashok Nagar among others, where there are inadequate number of waste bins and the installed ones are dilapidated and difficult to use.

“The residents complain that they are forced to dump the garbage on road sides and other similar places as they are find no bins to dump it. On the other hand, the waste lifter vehicles are not coming regularly, resulting in the piling of garbage at the place for days,” said a local councillor.

Councillor of ward No. 33 Suresh Chandra Jena had also brought the matter to light at the civic body’s monthly council meet last month when he stated that the PMR was not doing its duty properly and leaving the garbage at open places hence the bills to the agency should not be paid on this pretext.

Several councillors, who had raised the same issue, backed Jena.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar had then said that the bills to any of the sanitary agencies would not be paid if they were not discharging their duty properly and if it continued, the contract would be terminated with them.

“The authorities should not leave us under such an uneasy environment. The garbage lied just outside my house for days. It creates an unhealthy environment. They are crossing height of tolerance,” said Lakshmi Sagar resident Jitendra Mohanty.

“We are not going to entertain such violations by the sanitary agency. We have decided to pay the bills to the agencies only after councillors of the respective wards show satisfaction over the work and issue a performance certificate. If the violations continue, we will call for fresh ward-wise tender,” said the mayor.