Hundreds of plastic containers supplied by the Englishbazar municipality for household waste collection and segregation were found inside a room formerly used as a Trinamool Congress office in ward 21 of Malda, prompting a police complaint and a municipal inquiry into the alleged misuse of public property.
The containers were discovered on Tuesday in a tin-roofed room that had previously served as the local Trinamool office. According to BJP councillor Sutapa Mukherjee, the room had remained locked after the office stopped functioning, although some local Trinamool workers continued to visit the premises.
Mukherjee said residents had informed her that suspicious people were attempting to enter the room and remove articles. The individuals fled when residents approached, she said, leaving the room unlocked. Local residents subsequently secured the premises, after which Mukherjee inspected it and found the municipal containers inside.
The containers had reportedly been supplied by the municipality for distribution to households as part of domestic waste collection and segregation. Mukherjee alleged that residents in her ward had been denied the containers because they had elected a BJP councillor, while Trinamool workers distributed them among themselves. She also claimed that each household was supposed to receive two containers.
“Keeping such a large number of municipal containers in a party office amounted to the misuse of public property,” Mukherjee said. She later lodged a complaint at the Englishbazar police station, alleging that local Trinamool workers had misused municipal property.
The complaint comes against the backdrop of a politically contested municipal administration. Amlan Bhaduri, the Englishbazar MLA and civic chairman, said he had advised Mukherjee to file the police complaint. He added that the municipality would conduct a separate inquiry into the matter.
The police have received the complaint and are expected to begin a probe, according to the report. District Trinamool leaders declined to comment on the allegations.
The case places attention on a basic but often poorly documented part of urban sanitation: the movement of municipal equipment from procurement to household distribution. Containers intended for source segregation are useful only when they reach residents, are assigned through a transparent process and are supported by regular collection arrangements. The report does not establish how many containers were procured, how many were meant for ward 21, or whether any were formally issued to the party office.
Those questions are now central to the municipal and police inquiries. The investigations will also need to establish who authorised storage at the premises, whether the containers were recorded in municipal inventory and whether any items were removed or distributed outside the intended household programme. No finding of wrongdoing has been announced so far.
