Jadavpur University?s clean-up brigade in action. Picture by Amit Datta

It?s a study in contrast on either side of the Jadavpur University jheel. While the engineering students continue their class boycott battle, their counterparts in the arts faculty have declared war of a different kind, after class.

A mammoth campus clean-up drive has been undertaken this week by students of the English department, joined by willing hands from the Bengali and comparative literature departments.

Gate no. 4 was all-action zone on Thursday. Armed with brooms and spades, 40-odd boys and girls had divided themselves into groups. Some were shovelling off layers of grime gathered behind the union room, others waded into the pond trying to salvage a partly-submerged concrete slab, the rest were taking the fight to the pile of rubbish on the far corner near the boundary wall.

?This is the 50th year of the university; it seems we are up against 50 years of accumulated dirt,? rued Nilanjana Deb, the teacher who drafted the action plan.

She may not be too far from the truth, though Professor Sukanta Chaudhuri recalls a clean-up operation before the NAAC visit in 2001. ?But the momentum petered out? Today, I was staggered to see the sweeper working till 1.30 pm, his official duty hour, for the first time in my 13 years of service here,? he told Metro.

There?s a mountain of muck that the student army, backed by teachers and administrators, must make its way through, having started during a week when half the campus is shut for the showcause showdown.

?We have removed five-six sacks of lime dust today itself,? said Aritro Ganguly of English, PG I, only of his spot of deployment. Add to that plastic bags, rotten refuse from the adjacent canteen, construction rubbish?

?People who wouldn?t even think of touching garbage are fishing out yucky stuff from the pond,? laughed Abhijit Gupta, another teacher, working hand-in-glove with his students. His colleague Rimi B. Chatterjee has waded into filthy waters, with plastic footwear in place.

?First, we removed the non-biodegradable materials, like thermocol and plastic. Then, we had a merry time stomping on the clay cups. The garbage is being put in bags and carted off to the two university vats. Much of the rest is being set on fire,? said Deb.

Not that the students needed a reason to get their elbows dirty. ?It was a shame how visitors saw the pile of dirt on entering the gates,? said Samar Das, Bengali, PG I, student and varsity football captain.

Some may have bunked a class or two in the process, but this is ?putting the time to better use than chatting?, reasoned Sourya Sarkar from English.

?We are deliberately doing it in the afternoon so people see how much goes into cleaning the dirt they have allowed to pile up,? declared classmate Pradipta Sarkar.

A garden is being planned in the memory of a student who died in a road mishap in 2004. The pond banks will be paved and done up with ?a nice ring of plants?. The drains near the parking lot will have citronella saplings to keep off mosquitoes.

The authorities are all appreciation. Nandita Bhattacharya, secretary of the arts faculty, has ordered a waste paper basket on the bank. The operation is being financed (cost of gloves, shovels and snacks) by the university?s National Service Scheme.

Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students? Union general secretary Amit Chakraborty applauded the effort but said that in the context of their struggle over the proposed expulsion of five senior students, the question of participation in the clean-up drive had become a ?minor issue?.