Heaps of construction and demolition waste are being dumped outside the gate of a kindergarten school in Sealdah, almost turning the place into an official dumping site.
Some of those caught throwing garbage outside the school told the school authorities that they were barred by cleaners of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) from disposing of the waste in a vat across the road.
Instead, they were told to dump it in the spot outside the school gate.
They said they had no option but to throw the waste there, said officials of KL Sen KG School, located next to the Victoria Institution on APC Road.
The waste is picked up once in a fortnight or a month but garbage is again dumped at the spot from the next day.
What is happening outside the kindergarten school in Sealdah mirrors what many Calcuttans complain about: unregulated dumping and disposal of waste.
The problem is acute in an ageing city where old buildings are being pulled down and new ones built everywhere.
Mayor Firhad Hakim admitted recently that much of Calcutta’s construction and demolition waste was used to fill water bodies on the city’s outskirts.
The CMC has set up a plant to process the construction and demolition waste and build new materials like pavement blocks out of them.
However, the plant has not been getting enough waste, which acts as its raw material.
While the plant’s operation remains stalled on days owing to low or no supply of raw materials, construction and demolition waste remains dumped across the city in public spaces, risking people’s safety.
“Sixty children study in our school. We admit students aged between 2 and 6. I fear something may happen to them as a portion of the footpath and the road in front of the school always remains blocked by waste,” said Bishakha Majumder, principal of KL Sen KG School.
“The waste is picked up once a month or a fortnight. But waste is dumped afresh from the very next day. There is hardly a day when you will not find any construction waste outside the school,” she said.
When waste accumulates over a few days, people start throwing their daily waste over the construction waste. “It turns into an issue of hygiene,” said Majumder.
The practice of dumping waste outside KL Sen KG School has been continuing for years.
The principal said she has written to the local councillor but there has been no solution yet.
Soma Chowdhury, councillor of Ward 37, admitted that waste was dumped outside the school and the Victoria Institution.
“We have removed the waste so many times yet people throw garbage there. We are now building a new compactor station in the area so that people throw all their waste inside it,” she said last.
In August, Hakim said construction and demolition waste must be handed to
the CMC without fail so that the plant could function optimally.
The mayor said people can reach out to the CMC on WhatsApp number 8335999111 if they have any construction and demolition waste to dispose of.
The CMC’s building rules require the owner of a property to inform the civic body before its demolition. The owner is charged a transportation fee for picking up and transporting the waste.
Building plans will not be approved unless the transportation charge is paid by the owners, the official said.
Such threats have had little impact so far.