Idols share shelf space with utensils in a Kumartuli house. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta

The stink will raise the dead. The alleys will make you choke. The mess will make you cringe. The puddles will make you jump.

Beware, the abode of the gods is a living hell. Kumartuli, from where the most exquisite Durga idols travel to thousands of mandaps around the world every autumn, is a cauldron of clutter these days.

With revamp plans and relocation promises mired in red tape and hopes of a better tomorrow fading fast, the artisans plod on through the dismal drip, drip, drip of yet another pre-Puja monsoon.

Kumartuli is spread over five acres in wards 8 and 9. Most of the idol-making capital falls under ward No. 9 — Bonomali Sarkar Street, Bhaskar G Pal Street and a part of Kumartuli Street — and some of it under ward No. 8 — a part of Kumartuli Street and DC Banerjee Street.

Bhaskar G Pal Street and Bonomali Sarkar Street are in pathetic shape, with hardly any room to manoeuvre amidst hay and clay, plastic sheets and idols-in-the-making, grimy garbage and puddle potholes. These narrow lanes are hemmed in by dark and dank houses with makeshift roofs, and cramped and dingy studios with melting clay models.

Each small house in Kumartuli is packed with about 20 people. Each family at best gets two 10 ft x 10 ft rooms. Of the 600-odd families living here, at least 400 make idols. Of the rest, some trade in the ornaments of the deities and the rest are daily wage-earners.

Tomorrow’s gods and goddesses today are swamped in garbage. With no proper system of disposal in place, Kumartuli has turned into one big garbage dump. “Since there is hardly space inside the workshops — and many people do not even have workshops — half of the work is done in the narrow lanes,” says Babu Pal of Kumartuli Mritshilpi Sanskritik Samity. “Lack of space is a major problem and also the garbage all around. It’s so dirty and dingy that people don’t want to come in here. We are losing customers as people are settling for idols they can order and pick up from cleaner and more accessible places,” rues Pal.

“We are tired of hearing about relocation and have given up hope,” says Mintu Pal, a Samity member. The hopelessness in Kumartuli is palpable and yet come Puja and this putrid pocket of north Calcutta will feed the festive fervour of millions in Bengal and beyond.

Civicspeak

Mahua Mallick, the CPM councillor of ward 9, says: “In Kumartuli the lanes are so narrow that we cannot have a defined place for dumping garbage. We cannot possibly provide a space on Rabindra Sarani either. Because of the workshops, there will always be some hay scattered around. And the residents dump garbage on the streets as their houses are small and there is no disposal system. But civic workers do come to collect the garbage every morning. It is true that the toilets are stinking and they are cleaned twice or thrice a week. They are supposed to clean it with bleaching powder but they do not always do that. We have complained to the conservancy department but to no avail.... But there is no problem of water supply in Kumartuli.”

Kalyani Mitra, the mayoral council member (education) and CPM councillor of ward 8, adds: “The lanes are so narrow that not even an ambulance or a fire engine can enter. There is no space to keep a garbage cart. At times I have tried to keep a cart but the artisans have removed it because they need space to make idols. But the garbage is cleared regularly.... We are determined to carry out the rehabilitation of artisans despite the delays.”

Who do you blame for the mess in Kumartuli? Tell northmetro@abpmail.com