In the latest incident, a plastic dustbin installed near Rehabari flyover on AK Azad Road was stolen, leaving behind only the bare steel frame on which it had been mounted.

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Residents in the area say this is far from an isolated case. A local resident said that even before, whenever dustbins were installed, they would end up being stolen. This time around, GMC had gone a step further and set up steel frames to hold the bins in place, hoping it would deter theft. But even that has not stopped the miscreants, the resident said, adding that with the bins repeatedly disappearing, people are now left with no option but to dump their garbage on the roadside and wait for the GMC garbage truck to collect it.

Another resident felt the solution lay in changing the material used for the bins altogether, suggesting that authorities should instead install heavy steel or concrete dustbins that would be far more difficult to lift or carry away.

Speaking to GPlus, a local GMC councillor admitted that such incidents have been reported from several parts of the city and are not limited to one locality. The councillor said that officials routinely go through footage from nearby CCTV cameras to identify those responsible.

According to the councillor, it is usually young boys, many of them allegedly drug addicts, or ragpickers who make away with the bins. Since the dustbins are made of plastic, they are apparently sold off afterward, likely for scrap value.

With complaints piling up from multiple corners of the city, residents are now hoping GMC will explore sturdier alternatives so that public sanitation infrastructure does not keep vanishing from the streets it was meant to serve.