The fear of Rs 50

We realised how well he knew Santiniketan because the reticence to come out with Rs 50 was for real

When we were young and came to Santiniketan, we never realised the lack of it. Maybe because most of our garbage then was biodegradable and just went into a compost pit somewhere in the large garden. But once I permanently shifted in 2003 to Santiniketan, I realised this place had no conservancy services. Jurisdictionally, Santiniketan is divided into two parts. One part comes under the Visva Bharati University and the other under the Ruppur gram panchayat. Since none of them are capable of providing conservancy services, residents just chuck their garbage wherever they fancy.

Add to this, the hordes of tourists