Ward no 30 had a celebrity visitor to kick off sanitisation in the area. Nigel Akkara, actor and entrepreneur, spearheaded a drive over two days.

As he and three of his colleagues from Kolkata Facilities Management made the rounds of AH, BH, BG, CG blocks, Police Abasan, Banashree Abasan and Baisakhi Abasan, an announcer in a pilot vehicle asked residents to shut their windows and remove clothes from verandahs. “We have amid us the actor Nigel Akkara,” the announcer said. But if curious faces tried to catch a glimpse, they were urged to get back inside.

“We are spraying hydrogen peroxide, silver nitrate and sodium hypochrolite mixed with water. The process is called misting. Our company used to sanitise containers. After Covid-19 broke out, we started getting requests to sanitise offices. This is the work I did when I came back to the mainstream. But once the lockdown was announced, my chemicals and machines fell idle. So I offered sanitisation as a voluntary service and approached various civic bodies. Chairperson of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Anita Mandal took up my offer,” said Nigel, wearing his long hair in a pony tail, his bearded face partially hidden behind a mask.

Written with inputs from Debasmita Bhattacharya