The state public works department (PWD) partly cleaned up the Maidan on Thursday after hundreds of revellers spent Christmas Day there and it was full of litter.

While the stretch of the Maidan along Casuarina Avenue was cleared of filth, piles of garbage remained littered at other parts of the Maidan.

Styrofoam plates, cups, plastic bottles, gutkha packets and wrappers including empty chips packets remained strewn across the greens at faraway corners of the Maidan.

“Our workers visited the Maidan in the afternoon and collected the garbage strewn around. But given the amount of filth generated on Christmas, the clean-up drive may not have been enough,” said a senior PWD official of the Maidan sub-division.

“The waste generated around this time of the year is huge. If required, we will have to increase the number of workers for keeping the Maidan cleaner. But we would also request visitors to not litter the place with garbage,” the official said.

While the army is the custodian of the Maidan, the PWD is responsible for its upkeep. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation provides necessary support with garbage bins and waste disposal vats.

Regulars to the city’s largest patch of green said the Christmas Day crowd descending on the Maidan seemed bigger than in previous years with revellers in almost all the nooks and corners. Visitors gathered in groups, with families and friends to spend the better part of the day lounging on the greens leaving some of the vendors happy. By evening, a part of this crowd walked towards Park Street, they said.

“While leaving the Maidan, they littered the whole place. This time, the footfall seemed to be bigger than in previous years. No one cared, they kept throwing garbage everywhere,” said Baidanath Pandit, who has been selling tea for a decade in the Maidan.

Pandit said around 1.20pm, some workers arrived at the Maidan to pick up some garbage lying closer to the main road, Casuarina Avenue, and left after some time.

“No one ventured inside to collect the garbage that remained littered far from the main road,” he said.

Thursday didn’t witness the Christmas Day frenzy. But even then, visitors to the Maidan complained about how the city’s lungs were ill-maintained.

“It was difficult for us to find a clean place to sit. We had to remove some of the plastic and other garbage and make place for ourselves on the greens,” said Tanni Haldar, 22.