KMC to hold rain-ready meeting tomorrow

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has convened a series of meetings to take stock of the civic body’s preparedness for the rainy season.

MLAs of Cossipore-Belgachhia, Jorasanko, Beleghata and Chowringhee and councillors from 59 wards (1 to 59) have been requested to attend the first of the meetings, slated for Monday, when the focus will reportedly be on waterlogging black spots in north Kolkata. The MLAs and councillors will be asked for their suggestions on preventing flooding and fast clearing of accumulated stormwater, especially in the chronic spots, such as Dum Dum, Cossipore-Belgachhia and Thanthania-Amherst Street.

The KMC drainage department will prepare a blueprint to tackle waterlogging during the rainy season, based on the feedback from the MLAs and councillors.

A civic drainage department official pointed out that they were especially concerned about Thanthania-Amherst Street, given the ongoing construction of a drainage pumping station at Hrishikesh Park. “Several parts of Amherst Street have been dug up to lay drainage pipelines that will finally connect the neighbourhoods to the pumping station, which is currently being built, at Hrishikesh Park. We are trying our best to wrap up the project by July. As an alternative arrangement, we will keep portable pumps ready to flush out storm water from Amherst Street, College Street, Sukeas Street and Thanthania,” said the official. Beleghata, Maniktala and Ultadanga are also spots of concern for them, he added.

The new govt’s second cabinet meeting focused on the “collapse of civic services” in many Trinamool-controlled municipal corporation areas and municipalities. An overwhelming majority of the state’s urban local bodies, including the KMC, BMC and the Howrah Municipal Corporation, are under the Trinamool. But the party’s poll reverses in many of these zones, and defeat of Trinamool functionaries in these areas, have reportedly led to a decline in civic services, prompting the cabinet to intervene.

After the change in Bengal govt, civic services and the functioning of municipal corporations in Kolkata and adjoining urban belt have been thrown into uncertainty, with Bidhannagar and Howrah emerging as two stark examples of administrative drift, stalled projects and public dissatisfaction.