Days after chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s visit to a private hospital in Chinhat prompted a crackdown on sanitation agencies and municipal workers, garbage continued to pile up on key roads across Lucknow during Diwali, exposing the gap between the civic administration’s punitive action and ground realities.
However, road sweeping in the locality was reportedly assigned to another agency, Lion Security, rather than LSA, raising questions over accountability. The road has now turned into an open dumping ground, with construction and demolition (C&D) waste and drain silt occupying a substantial portion of the stretch. During its visit, HT spotted a heavy vehicle dumping waste on the road. The incident exposed a coordination gap between the two agencies responsible for civic infrastructure. The problem was not confined to Dalibagh.
Following the chief minister’s visit on November 2, the civic administration imposed a penalty of ₹ 15 lakh on Lucknow Swachhta Abhiyan (LSA), dismissed 10 sanitation workers, including a supervisor, and conducted a midnight bulldozer drive to remove roadside huts and shops. The most glaring example was the newly constructed 900-metre road in Dalibagh, developed by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) and inaugurated by the chief minister. The driver said the contractor paid him ₹ 600 per trip to dump silt removed from drains and that he had been making such trips for the past few days. In Sector 4 of Gomti Nagar Extension, HT found service lanes littered with garbage and plastic waste.
An LDA official overseeing the road, who requested anonymity, said the authority had not yet handed it over to the LMC and was unaware of the dumping. Residents said sanitation workers had not visited the locality for more than three days.
