Calcutta to Be Painted Blue

Hue and cry as mayor orders city-wide paint job
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 17, 2012 12:54 AM CST
Updated Feb 17, 2012 3:10 AM CST
Calcutta to Be Painted Blue
Indians throng a street in Calcutta.   (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Calcutta's new government has decided it's time to go out and paint the town ... blue. Government buildings, taxis, and footpaths are to be repainted blue and white, and owners of private buildings will be strongly encouraged to follow suit, the BBC reports. "Blue is a beautiful color, and is also soothing for the eyes," the city's mayor says.

With the right color scheme in place, steps to sort out problems like "chaotic health care, inability to implement pollution control norms, arsenic in the water, archaic sewers and garbage disposal, bad roads, and killer buses for public transport," will surely follow, scoffed the Calcutta Telegraph. Opposition parties say the paint job is a waste of public funds and an attempt to scrub the city of the red of the Communists who ruled it from 1977 to 2011. (More Calcutta stories.)

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