With the elections around the corner, the garbage-lined streets and overflowing drains across Salt Lake have sparked fear of an outbreak of enteric diseases and are forcing many residents to keep the windows and doors of their houses firmly shut.

Residents said most of the 150 tonnes of the garbage Salt Lake generates every day is accumulating across the 33.5sq km township. “At this rate, Salt Lake will soon become Dhapa. This is happening at a time the authorities as well as residents need to focus on hygiene to combat Covid and dengue,” said a resident.

Fallen branches of a tree block much of a road behind Vidyut Bhavan Sourced by the correspondent

This has come at a time when Devasish Jana, the erstwhile board member of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s board of administrators, has resigned and joined the BJP.

A senior civic official said that as of now, no member of the board of administrators has been asked to head or supervise the solid waste management and road sweeping mechanism of all 41 wards the fall under the jurisdiction of the Corporation.

An engineer of the civic body admitted that garbage as well as construction waste and fallen leaves were accumulating on the pavements across all three sectors of the township.“It is true that garbage has accumulated in some places. We are clearing it and will carry out more intensive drives soon,” the engineer.

Jana, the former mayoral council member in charge of solid waste management at the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation who is now a ward co-ordinator, said that it was evident that he had worked during his tenure. “If the headmaster is there in school then all classes take place like clockwork. But now there is nobody heading this crucial department, we can see all that there is to see," said Jana.

He added that it saddened him to see newly constructed walkways littered with garbage and areas in front of playgrounds and green verges piled with dead leaves and garbage. “Accumulated garbage gives ample opportunities for mosquitoes to breed. This is one of the reasons why Salt Lake is facing such a hard time in terms of mosquitoes,” said Jana.

For five days a week, Ishanjit Choudhury, a resident of IB Block, is having to dump household waste at the neighbourhood vat behind IC block that is overflowing with garbage. He doesn’t have a choice. His neighbours, too, are doing the same.“Civic workers would previously collect garbage from our doorstep every day. Now they come hardly twice a week. They are not even taking away garbage from near the compactor station. The entire area stinks,” the 72-year-old said

Empty cases thrown away on an empty plot in JC Block Sourced by the correspondent

The Telegraph Salt Lake drove around the township on Tuesday and found scarcely any block or compactor station that did not have a heap of garbage lying around.

The areas near City Centre and the CGO Complex looked the dirtiest. The situation was similar in AE, AB, BC, BB, CJ CE and IC blocks.

A 20-metre stretch from the City Centre Metro station till Bidhannagar College was littered with garbage. The entire area had flies swarming around, while several dogs and cows were seen rummaging through the garbage for food.

Passers-by were seen holding handkerchieves to their noses despite wearing masks.“The stench from the garbage in front of our house is so overpowering that we keep the windows of our house shut,” said Prakash Agarwal, a resident of EC Block.

A civic official blamed the combination of staff shortage and defunct garbage collection trucks for the sorry state of affairs. “Many men are not reporting for work out of fear of contracting the coronavirus and also because local trains are not running,” the official said. “There used to be 250 sweepers. Now, there are only half that number,” he added.

Another official said many workers who were involved in collection of garbage were now selling vegetables or involved in other activities. “We are trying to hire personnel but the pandemic is coming in the way,” he said.

To add to the problem, sources said, many handcarts and vans have broken down.