Fed up of the administration’s apathy towards the accumulating garbage in their parks, CF Block residents picked up broomsticks themselves on July 17.
“Our ward has several blocks like BF, BE and AE where parks are well-maintained. But when it comes to trimming grass in our parks, the corporation is always short-staffed,” said Gora Roy, secretary of Salt Lake CF Block Residents’ Association, who took part in the clean-up drive.
CF Block has a series of small parks in a row. First is an Apur Sansar theme park, then the field adjoining the community hall, a safari park, football field and a children’s play area with play equipment. “These parks are neglected for the past year and a half,” said Roy.
The association has approached councillor Sabyasachi Dutta and mayor Krishna Chakraborty multiple times and had to reach out to MLA Sujit Bose before the Pujas last year just to get the grass trimmed. By then, snakes had started slithering out and mosquitoes were breeding here. Work began again earlier this year but got abandoned after about 60 per cent completion.
The football field and children’s play area can hardly be accessed now. The grass is waist-high for kids, dead leaves are scattered in pools of rainwater, plastic and other rubbish litters the grounds and the net walls of the football field are so densely covered by creepers that one can barely look through. No one comes to play here anymore and even the volunteers were scared to venture too far in.
Enough is enough
"The excuse by the authorities is that they lack manpower, although it is not clear how they never had this problem before. We cannot live here with snakes and mosquitoes, and will not depend on the authorities anymore,” said Ananda Paul, president of the residents’ association.
On Sunday, about 15 residents raked the leaves and segregated the trash in the parks. “About three years ago, we had purchased a lawn mower to maintain the field adjoining the community hall and had a caretaker to do the needful. We have now hired another person to help him,” said Roy.
“We are doing this out of frustration,” said an irate Paul. “If the authorities cannot maintain our parks they have no right to demand taxes from us. We will submit our additional bill to the conservancy department and seek tax rebate.”
