Garbage in JU: KMC to take legal action if not cleared

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will take legal action against Jadavpur University authorities if garbage from the campus is not cleaned within a week as this might lead to the outbreak of dengue in the area.

The KMC gave a notice urging the authorities to clean the garbage on Monday. It was the third notice served since April. In June, the civic authorities had served a notice. However, the JU authorities did not pay any heed to the notices and allowed the garbage to pile up. It is JU's responsibility to clear garbage from its campus. So long 13 JU employees were found to be suffering from dengue of which, six had been confirmed.

A civic team led by Atin Ghosh, Member Mayor-in-Council (Health), visited JU campus and found heaps of garbage at several places. Disgusted over the lackadaisical attitude of the University authorities, Ghosh urged the students to come forward and request the authorities to keep the campus clean.

"The students of JU are vocal against national and international issues and now, when despite repeated requests the authorities did not clean the campus, they should request them to take appropriate action to prevent the outbreak of dengue in the area," said Ghosh.

Ghosh along with Tapan Dasgupta, chairman Borough X, Madhucchanda Deb, Councillor of ward 92, Debashis Biswas, chief vector control officer, senior officials of Engineering and Solid waste Management (SWM) department visited the campus this afternoon.

The team was shocked to see the deplorable condition of garbage removal. There was garbage beside the Teachers' quarters (Block A), Teachers' quarters (Block H), near new Boys' hostel, near the parking lot, School of Oceanography, department of Life Science and Biotechnology. The drain behind the Impact Centre has become clogged.

There were empty bottles, thermocol boxes and empty boxes. Ghosh said as it is raining, the empty boxes and containers will accumulate water and become potential breeding grounds for Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes. He said the situation would have gone out of control had the KMC Health department workers not sprayed mosquito repellent at the points from where garbage has not been removed.

"KMC cannot clean garbage from the campus and it is the duty of the JU authorities. However, KMC can remove the accumulated garbage by payment of fees. A meeting was held between JU Registrar and KMC officials over the removal of accumulated garbage.