As many as six automatic sanitizing machines which were procured by former MLA late MM Duuta out of his Local Area Development (LAD) fund and positioned in the town area during the Covid period are gathering dust.
These machines while went unserviceable within a few days of installation, they have now become shelters for the stray dogs. According reports, those were procured by Dutta at a cost of Rs 9 lakh during spiking of Covid cases.
They were handed over to the Baleswar Municipality and were positioned in the prominent places , one each at Town police station, Sahadevkhunta police station , Sadar block , Railway station and two in the District Headquarters Hospital.
These machines auto disinfect a person once he or she passes through it.For a few days, they were working perfectly yet without care and maintenance currently all of them are found to be out of order and dumped casually without use. The locals feel that this is seer waste of resources due to apathy of the Government officials.
The purpose for which they were installed in the prominent places hence is defeated. Regarding the issue, the Executive Officer Municipality and the Sub collector, Sadar said that steps would be taken to repair them.