The lanes of BA and CA Block are about to get CCTVs. No, not to catch thieves but to catch residents who dump their rubbish on the roadsides. 

Local councillor Rajesh Chirimar has announced that the two blocks would be getting CCTVs by Diwali. “This move will be part of the Nirmal Bangla campaign initiated by our chief minister to keep the city clean and I shall spend Rs 8 lakh from my councillor’s fund on it,” said Chirimar. 

Residents must be sensitised about maintaining a clean neighbourhood, he said. “Once we catch someone throwing garbage in public, my officers will go and talk to them. If the person is someone else’s staff they will walk up to the house concerned and speak to its residents. Hopefully things will improve and we will be able to check garbage accumulation on roads, market places, garages etc,” Chirimar said. 

He would soon float a tender for the project, as per the standard official procedure. “On any given day, six to seven days of prior footage will be readily available from the CCTVs and it will all be mapped by my officers on their smart phones,” he said. 

Chirimar is the councillor of Ward 39 that comprises DA, DB, EA, BA, CA, CB blocks and part of Duttabad. But for starters only BA and CA blocks have been chosen for the CCTV project. “As of now we are concentrating on BA-CA blocks.
Thereafter we shall take it to other blocks if the block committees co-operate,” he added.

The decision has met with mixed response from others in the corporation. Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta himself doesn’t think much of the idea. “Using CCTVs or employing security guards would not be of much use unless people are made aware of the ill effects of dumping garbage in vacant plots. So we are try to increase awareness,” he said. 

Devashish Jana, the mayoral council member in charge of solid waste management, said the township would be cleaned before the Pujas. “We have asked all councillors to employ 30 casual labourers for a span of eight days till September 5. This would be a clean-up drive before the Pujas as well as a part of the Nirmal Bangla initiative,” said Jana. “We are also putting up flexes asking people not to litter and are cleaning all vacant plots in the township.” 

Councillor of Ward 40, Tulsi Sinha Roy, said CCTVs were not the solution. “We won’t know if this is a viable option unless one ward actually installs them. CCTVs would nab culprits red-handed but we need to figure out what to do with the offenders,” she said. 

Councillors seem unsure about whether they have the authority to impose fines on offenders. “We don;t know if the corporation act allows us to impose fines on people who dump garbage on the streets,” said a councillor who did not wish to be named. Schedule 5 of the West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act 2006, that deals with penalties that can be invoked by a corporation, does not mention any fine that can be imposed for littering.

New Town Kolkata Development (NKDA), however, imposes a fine of Rs 100 on anyone who is caught littering by their officers or cleaners. For construction waste dumped on the roads, they charge a steep Rs 50,000. “We have also put up boards in all action areas asking people not to litter and warning them of the fines,” said an NKDA official.

Divided house
Many residents feel CCTVs would be an effective way to catch those littering the neighbourhood but only as long as they don’t have to pay for it. 

“Most Salt Lake residents are educated but that doesn’t stop them from throwing trash out of windows or leaving them at the street corners,” said Kamala Neogi of CD Block. “I always go and tell them off but it doesn’t help. Installing CCTVs is a good move so such people can be identified and fined.”

Saibal Chakraborty of DA Block thinks electronic vigil would help catch dog owners who make their pets defecate on the streets. “Corporation workers clean the lanes daily but dog owners lead their dogs to relieve themselves outside their neighbours’ house. CCTVs should be installed and the offenders fined,” he said. 

Even domestic helps note how irresponsible residents are. “I come from Duttabad to work in CB Block in the morning and see people throwing garbage from their first floor and second floor windows,” said Sushma Bagchi, a cook. “Garbage collectors ask them repeatedly to hand over their trash to them but these residents don’t listen.”  

But some feel CCTVs are too expensive a solution for a problem that can be solved by simply raising awareness. “I think the green police should be empowered to catch offenders. People are scared of the police and would toe the line then,” says Samarjit Guha, a resident of BA Block who has waged verbal battles against people throwing food items from the balconies.
“They say they are for cows without realising that they are littering the streets. Even the road divider between PNB Island and CA Island is a public dumpyard. People eat at the stalls nearby and throw the food packets on the divider. I’ve seen cows, dogs and even rats and mules eating out of them. The shopkeepers should take responsibility for the cleanliness of their surroundings.” 

 Catch ’em red-handed: 

When we shifted to this house in Salt Lake 10 years ago, people used to dump waste at our gate. My brother and I have shouted at offenders, thrown stones and even chased them with sticks till they finally stopped. 

But the block continues to be a mess with people tossing litter anywhere they fancy. On August 15, the garbage van did not come and the next thing you know is a stinking heap forming next to the community centre where the flag-hoisting ceremony was to take place. Keeping their refuse home for a day is unthinkable for some. 

Both my son and my brother’s son are running a fever for over a week now. My son used to sit next to Bibhoshan Guha Thakurta (the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan student who died of haemorrhagic shock a month back) in class. A mosquito or an insect bite now throws him into a tizzy. He is scared of dying like his friend. Imagine, he is just nine years old! 

Of course, we want our surroundings to be kept clean — for his sake, for our sake. We have to pay Rs 30 per house to the garbage pick-up men as ‘salary’ every month. If the ‘salary’ is delayed, they blow the whistle in front of the house and speed off without collecting the garbage as punishment. Despite collecting money round the year from us, they would not clear the grass we chop every monsoon from the lawn and pile on the roadside unless they are paid a separate three-figure bribe. 

Our countrymen believe more in stick than in carrot. If people are aware that they are under watch, and warned of steep punitive action, then only would they think twice about throwing garbage on the street. 

Rajorshi Narayan Patranabis 
HA 87

VS

 Improve the system instead:

The municipal administration has time and money to install CCTV and catch garbage-throwers but none to implement a proper garbage disposal system! If garbage collection is not happening properly in the area, what will people do? 

CCTV vigil should be for thieves, not residents! Littering is not a crime. It is a compulsion forced on people when the garbage disposal is inadequate. 

Some roads in our block have not been cleaned for six months. Take a walk through the lane adjacent to Celebration, the Chinese restaurant, leading to the main road. Garden refuse is lying in front of each house for months. Where will people dump garden refuse if not in front of their house? What will people do if garbage collectors refuse to collect the waste? Of course, dengue will spread in such a scenario.

The pushcarts meant for door-to-door collection come whistling at 6am. Most of us are working professionals and are in bed at that ungodly hour. Why can’t they come later? Earlier, a second round of door-to-door collection used to happen around 11am. That has stopped. 

A smart city should have a smart garbage collection strategy. Only laying interlocking paver blocks on pavements and painting dividers are not enough to give the township a smart look. It has to be clean to begin with. 

The municipal corporation first needs to deploy more people to keep Salt Lake clean. What happened to the multiple vats they had talked of for garbage segregation at source? And if they want to install CCTVs at all, let them do so to monitor the garbage disposal, not residents. 

Bharati Kanjilal
HA 311

Do you like/ dislike the idea of having CCTVs to guard against littering?
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