Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet the chairmen, CEOs and senior officials of all the municipalities on Monday. The state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Mr Firhad Hakim will be present at the meeting. The meeting will be held at Nabanna Sabhaghar tomorrow afternoon.
The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has prepared report cards of all the municipalities. The state Chief Secretary Mr BP Gopalika will be present at the meeting. Miss Banerjee recently held two meetings with senior administrative officials. She has instructed the senior officials to pull up their socks. There are 123 municipalities in Bengal. In the past 13 years the state government has spent Rs 32,000 crore on the development of municipal services. As the Assembly election will be held in less than two years time, Miss Banerjee wants to take stock of the situation.
In the recently held general election Trinamul Congress has improved its performance by increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats but in the municipal areas the party could not do well in some pockets. Miss Banerjee has already instructed the councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation to intensify their outreach. A senior official of the state government said Miss Banerjee wants to know why despite so much improvement in the civic services, some people are not happy. It has been found that in some municipalities the roads are bumpy and garbage clearing is not regularly done.
People have resented the corruption of some civic officials. With this backdrop, tomorrow’s meeting is significant. The state government has instructed all the departments to rationalise expenditure. Miss Banerjee is also likely to discuss the steps taken by the civic bodies to combat malaria and dengue during the meeting.