Salt Lake was once Calcutta’s pride.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday last week said Salt Lake was now “a shame”.

Residents and visitors have for some time been witness to the decline: pavement-grabbing stalls, crumbling roads, garbage-lined streets, broken street lights and shambolic parks are now synonymous with the planned township.

“Salt Lake aamar lajja lagchhe. (I am ashamed of Salt Lake),” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.

A tour around Salt Lake on June 25 proved why she said what she said.

Potholes and craters dot many main roads. First Avenue, which connects Salt Lake with Ultadanga, is peppered with what have now become ditches.

The road in front of the office of the animal resources department (ARD) in LB Block, along Eastern Drainage Canalbank Road, resembles an off-road track.

Streets that crisscross blocks fare no better. The blacktop has crumbled in FD, FE, EE and ED Blocks.

In all 52 blocks of Salt Lake there are pavement-grabbing stalls. Many of the stalls do not even try to leave any part of the pavement for pedestrians.

Hawkers have built elaborate bazaars in front of the Geological Survey of India office, opposite the Karunamoyee Housing Estate and near City Centre, among other places.

There was garbage along the road opposite IC Block in Salt Lake’s Sector III. Garbage spilled out of a vat near Labony Housing Estate.

All along Broadway — the main road that connects Salt Lake with EM Bypass — the street lights were broken.

Residents of Salt Lake would once take pride in smooth roads, wide pavements and open spaces. The civic infrastructure, they say, has turned shoddy because of the negligence of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

The chief minister had said the same at a meeting on June 24.

“Why don’t the councillors of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation work? They are an elected body. They don’t sweep the roads. Do I have to sweep the roads now? They don’t take care of the lights, roads and water supply. They don’t look at the problems people face,” Mamata had said.

Asked about Mamata's outburst, Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty said: “Didi has scolded us.... We will identify the areas where we have been negligent. Officials and councillors have been asked to do their duty.”

Mamata had said in the meeting: "In Salt Lake, Sujit Bose is aiding encroachers, as if it is a competition. Why will you let outsiders encroach? How much did they have to pay? Who took the money?"

Bose is the Bidhannagar MLA. He told this newspaper: "I have never collected a single penny from any hawker in Salt Lake. We will work as a team and rectify all deficiencies and problems...."

Sarat Mallick, the secretary of the residents’ body Bidhannagar Welfare Association, said “the civic infrastructure has turned from bad to worse over the years”.