ON a sultry Sunday morning at 9.30, 30 people in caps and casuals arrive at the Matangini Hazra statue near Shaheed Minar in central Kolkata. They are from CleanUp Kolkata, an initiative started by 22-year-old Sachin Bhagat, a BTech student at Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology.

The place is littered with all kinds of rubbish: polythene bags, plastic sachets, discarded cloth, glass bottles and more. Reusable gloves and masks, funded with the pocket money of 17 team members, are passed around. Volunteers roll up their sleeves and get to work.