BMC collects 5,000 kg of garbage from Azad Maidan after the Maharashtra CM swearing-in ceremony

According to police officials, around 35,000 to 40,000 people gathered at Azad Maidan, where Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and former CM Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena, also took oath as the deputy chief ministers.

In what turned out to be the biggest swearing-in ceremony in the state in recent years, people from not just the city but also far-flung towns across Maharashtra thronged the ground, shoulder to shoulder with a fleet of Bollywood actors and industrialists.

Soon after the ceremony concluded, BMC workers on night shift jumped into action on Thursday night and cleared 1,000 kg of waste in two small vehicles. On Friday morning, 4,000 kg of waste was collected from Azad Maidan ground in one mini compactor vehicle and three other smaller vehicles.

“Over 5,000 kg of garbage was collected in total after the event by the solid waste management staff,” a senior BMC official told The Indian Express.

Most of the litter collected during the clean-up consisted of food packets, plastic bottles, posters, torn bits of clothes used to tie pillars and other objects, according to a ward official involved in the clean-up drive.

However, political banners, which had sprung up along the thoroughfare leading up to Azad Maidan, are yet to be taken down.

Expecting a huge crowd at the event, the BMC had already deployed over 300 staffers from its solid waste management (SWM) department on duty at Azad Maidan over the past three days.

“Our employees had been on day and night duty over the past three days. In a bid to oversee the arrangements, the municipal commissioner had come twice for inspection while additional municipal commissioner (city) also visited thrice, in the days leading upto the VVIP event,” said the officer.

Furthermore, the BMC had also stationed five misting machines and six water tankers a day ahead of the event to control dust on the maidan.

While over five tonnes of waste was collected from Azad Maidan between Thursday and Friday morning, the entire city of Mumbai generates an average of 6,385 metric tonnes of garbage daily.