Piles of garbage remain dumped along Cathedral Road, which runs along the western boundary wall of St Paul’s Cathedral, while the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the public works department (PWD) seem unsure about whose responsibility it is to clean the stretch.
One of the few remaining leafy stretches in the city, Cathedral Road is lined with gates to enter Birla Planetarium, St Paul’s Cathedral, Academy of Fine Arts and the Victoria Memorial. Thousands of people walk down the footpaths along the road.
The Telegraph on Sunday saw the edges of the footpaths covered with waste such as plastic and paper cups, glasses and plates, leftover food, rags, plastic packs of fast food, plastic bags and leaves.
The volume of the waste indicated that it had accumulated over weeks, possibly months. The gully pits, too, were filled with waste.
Officials of the KMC, which is responsible for removal of solid waste from most of the city, said cleaning Cathedral Road is the responsibility of the PWD.
“Since the PWD maintains the road, they are supposed to remove waste from the road and the footpaths,” said a KMC official.
The PWD is in charge of the roads in the Maidan area.
A PWD official said, after seeing pictures of the waste sent by this newspaper, the waste was lying inside barricaded green verges on the footpaths that have been built by the KMC.
“Since the KMC built the green verges, it is understood that they will clean it,” said the official.
“But there is no point in passing the buck. Our officials will inspect the road. We may clean the road for now. We will also talk to the KMC,” the official said.