Almost all the street taps and tubewells are dry. The only Urdu school in all of north Calcutta stands dilapidated. Welcome to ward 1, on the city? border with North 24-Parganas.

CPM councillor Kanai Ganguly has washed his hands of the problems and passed the buck on to the Trinamul Congress board: ?I am tired of telling the board of the problems.?

What local resident Nandini Sarkar has to say about the board may not be music to the ears of the Trinamul or the Congress-led alliance (the latest refuge of mayor Subrata Mukherjee).

?We do not want concrete roads, mercury lamps, swimming pools or fountains. We want water to drink. We often hear about new pipelines and pumping stations. But go to Satchasipara Road, Rustomji Parsee Road or Pramanik Ghat Road, you will find hundreds of people, including women and children, queuing up for water in front of the corporation tap. The pressure is so low that it takes at least 20 minutes to fill a bucket,?? says Sarkar.

Prabal Biswas, of Satchasipara Road, said the only development in the area has been the widening of BT Road and installation of streetlights. And he gives the credit for both to the PWD.

Move over to ward 2, where Rajabagan resident Tulsi Charan Pal says about the civic amenities: ?The Calcutta Municipal Corporation extracts tax and mosquitoes draw blood from us.?

The area around Rabindra Bharati University, on BT Road, goes under water even after a brief shower, he alleges. ?The drains overflow round-the-year.?

CPM councillor Ruma Saha pins the blame on the Subrata brigade. ?More than 90 per cent of the drains in wards 1, 2 and 3 are open. The sewerage system is choked as it has not been cleared in the past five years. ADB funds meant for bettering the system had been cancelled at the mayor?s instance,? she says.

Close to Shyambazar, residents of Duttabagan and Milk Colony in ward 3 are venting their ire against the civic board for bad roads and ?unhygienic? slums.

?Over 10,000 people in four government housing estates in Duttabagan do not get Palta water. They have to depend on deep tubewells,? said CPM councillor Chhaya Banerjee.

?Manindra Road is so bad that even a rickshaw-puller refuses to carry passengers on it,? said Baisakhi Sarkar, a resident of Duttabagan colony.