A dumper mauls the restored greens against the backdrop of the big top. (Bishwarup Dutta)

Calcutta High Court may have banished the book fair from Park Circus Maidan but the civic body is bringing the circus back, posing a fresh threat to a mauled oasis that was recently restored with Rs 4 crore of taxpayers’ money.

For the second successive winter, a circus has been allowed to pitch tent in the only green, open space in a part of the city shorn of all other greenery. What makes it worse is that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation is doing so against the wishes of residents, who had barely begun to enjoy their breathing space after years of wheezing in a dust bowl.

Mohammed Hashim, a retired West Bengal Civil Service officer who resides in Talbagan Lane, is distraught. “The maidan will soon turn into a huge public urinal. Hundreds of hawkers will set up shop, cook in the open and litter the greens. Rows of cars will be parked everywhere, triggering traffic snarls. Leave alone taking a morning walk, it will be a torture staying here,” said Hashim, whose home is adjacent to the park.

Residents have filed a diary with Beniapukur police station and put up posters protesting the circus invasion.

A recce by Metro confirmed Park Circus Maidan’s plight. The arena allotted to the circus resembled a vacant plot waiting for a multi-storeyed building to come up rather than part of this vast residential-cum-commercial zone’s lungs.

The gate of the circus

Circus camels on the ground

A mauled stretch of the maidan

Trenches dug up on the greens

Eight large lamp posts stood tall along with a huge, colourful gate on the northern side, built by piercing the heart of the green surface with dry bamboo poles. A stream of trucks carrying construction materials and workers creating a pit completed the picture of destruction.

A. Rajan, the co-ordinator of Olympic Circus, insisted that the park would not be harmed. “We will make sure that the ground is restored to its previous condition after the circus is over,” he added.

But why is the civic body trying to destroy what it had restored? “A circus is a lucrative proposition. The civic body earns a big amount by renting out the maidan for two to three months,” explained an employee of the parks and gardens department.

Park Circus Maidan used to be the venue of choice for fairs and circuses until 2008, by which time the entire grass had disappeared. In 2008, residents decided that enough was enough when the state government decided to hold the book fair there after it was driven out of its traditional venue, the Maidan.

Citizens and morning walkers’ committees had moved court, prompting the then Chief Justice, S.S. Nijjar, to visit Park Circus Maidan to see the scale of destruction. Chief Justice Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh then ordered the fair out of Park Circus Maidan and asked the organisers to “repair the ground as soon as possible”.

“The permissions issued by the state government and the CMC to the Publishers and Booksellers’ Guild are against the Environmental Protection Act, Noise (Regulation and Control) Rules and Air (Prevention and Control) Act,” the bench had ruled.

The division bench also pointed out that Articles 21 and 14 of the Constitution would have been violated had the fair been held on Park Circus Maidan. Article 21 deals with protection of life, or the right to live in a congenial atmosphere. Article 14, which deals with equality before law, was invoked because freedom of movement would have been affected by traffic restrictions.

Encouraged by how the judiciary stood by them two years ago, residents of the area are once again planning to move court to stop the circus. “We have already issued notices to the police, CMC and the chief minister’s office,” said Bikash Ghosh, the general secretary of the Morning Walkers and Senior Citizens Forum of Park Circus Maidan.

“Mamata Banerjee harps on the word paribartan (change), claiming that she will undo all the wrongs committed during 35 years of Left Front rule. But is this how she is going to govern the state if she comes to power in 2011? How could the Trinamul-run CMC give permission to a circus to pitch tent here,” demanded Rajan Advani, a resident of Gorachand Road and a morning walker on Park Circus Maidan for over 20 years.

Former mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who was once adamant about holding the book fair on Park Circus Maidan, criticised the Trinamul-run civic board for issuing permission to the circus.

“It is unfortunate that public money is being wasted like this. The Left Front-run board had decided that once Park Circus Maidan was completely restored, no circus would be allowed in,” he claimed.

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