Kolkata: Citizens pick up brooms to clean Salt Lake green verge

KOLKATA: The residents of Salt Lake AE Block have come forward to clean up a green verge that was lying in a mess for a long time with pile of garbage and dead leaves.
The AE Block Samaj Kalyan Sangha - the local residents' association - took up a day-long drive to clean up the green verge, taking up brooms in their hands and engaging sweepers to clear the stretch under their supervision.

Residents said ironically, the other green verge stretches in BE and CE blocks are well-maintained. Recently, miscreants burned dead leaves and stubble in the area, triggering air pollution, said a resident.

"Many people who regularly have their morning and evening walks in this stretch had stopped visiting the place due to its condition that was deteriorating everyday. The local civic authorities did not take up any initiative to clean the place. So, we decided to take up the job and we hope that the civic authorities will look into this matter," said Arnab Pattanayak, a resident.
"I have been living here for 40 years. The green verge stretch was so beautiful earlier but of late, we could not walk here in the evening as it was not getting cleaned. Outsiders were dumping waste here and antisocial activities, too, were happening. It is good that the block association took up the initiative to clean up the place," said Bikash Sanyal, an elderly resident living just beside the green verge stretch.
"We were receiving complaints from many residents on the pathetic condition of the green verge stretch. We were compelled to take up the cleaning drive of the green verge as neither the local civic body nor the urban development department came forward to clean the stretch. We engaged 15 people and also picked up sickles and brooms to clean up the area," said AE Block Samaj Kalyan Sangha president Manimoy Saha.
"During the Covid lockdown, we had conducted a door-to-door sanitisation drive in the locality on a regular basis. The green verge stretch was in a mess for a long time and we had informed the local councillor and also gave a memorandum to the urban development department minister. The minister had told us that the stretch will be cleaned in next two months, but we decided to clean up the green verge ourselves. We hope the civic authorities will maintain the green verge," said AE Block Samaj Kalyan Sangha secretary Tapas Sengupta.
BMC chairman Sabysachi Dutta, who is the local councillor, welcomed the initiative. "The stretch is not under the civic body's jurisdiction. We cannot take up the matter as it falls under urban development department," he said. State urban development department secretary Khalil Ahmed said he would look into it.