kolkata a politician in the state seems to have taken chief minister mamata banerjees diktat to beautify the city so seriously that hes going out of his way to turn the simple stateliness of a rajera bridge into a gaudy modernday artwork in a bid to draw mamatas attention lakhs have already been spent on the incongruous makeover of the bridge that connects beliaghata road with beliaghata main road not only has the politician manicktala mla paresh pal gone overboard on aesthetics he has even consigned norms to the bin by arbitrarily awarding the project to a private contractor if pal has his way a similar cosmetic makeover is waiting for bridges at narkeldanga main road and manicktala main road it was mamatas command to party mps mlas and councillors to beautify kolkata that spurred pal into action the beliaghata canal from baghbazar in north kolkata to the eastern metropolitan bypass in the east cuts across his constituency with polluted water stagnating in the clogged canal and waste littered all over the stench and squalor is overpowering yet the mla somehow overlooked the filth below and concentrated on the staid structure of the bridge over it the canal has to be dredged and people living along it rehabilitated for cleaning up the entire stretch that involves huge cost and is beyond my scope the bridges are used by lakhs of people and sprucing them up would make an immediate impact pal reasoned at first he thought about a fresh coat of paint to the three identical bridges but with councillors mlas and mps vying for mamatas attention with all kinds of beautification projects pal realized a simple paint job would go unnoticed thats when he decided on doing something more radical to grab the eyeballs consequently pal roped in joy sengupta an artist he had earlier engaged to beautify kankurgachi park the brief was simple make something so striking that the bridge stands out joy used the motif brick and mortar seats in the shape of wooden logs that he had worked on in the park five years ago his idea was to transform the concrete bridge into a log bridge complete with giant mushrooms sprouting over the edge sengupta proposed the idea and the maverick politician lapped it up without even consulting city planners architects conservationists or other artists on the appropriateness or incongruity of the fancy art work on a public bridge of british vintage i want the bridge to stand out and look somewhat like the park in the squalor it will be an oasis of sorts said pal adding that conical shelters were being built on the bridge to house statues of rabindranath tagore swami vivekananda and acharya prafulla chandra there was a hitch though executing the beautification work would require more funds than a simple paint job but getting funds approved through the proper channel would be a challenge and could stall the project thats when he decided to get only