The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) is planning to extend the area of the civic body. The corporation is in discussions with the state government on this and has already received some proposals, it is learnt. After assuming chair of the Siliguri mayor in February, Gautam Deb had spoken about “unplanned delimitation” of wards under the SMC. The civic body areas include both Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts. Out of the 47 wards, 14 wards fall in Jalpaiguri district.
It administers an area of 41.90 km2 (16.18 sq meters). “We are discussing with the state government on inclusion of some gram panchayat areas, which are close to Siliguri. We have received some logical proposals,” Mr Deb said. Major areas under the Dabgram-I, Dabgram-II, FulbariI and Fulbari-II and Matigara block are located very close to the corporation wards.
According to Mr Deb, they were also discussing delimitation of some wards. According to him, the delimitation of wards during the regime of the erstwhile Left front government was done in an unplanned manner.
Mr Deb said that when the total area of the 14 added wards is 27sqkm, the area of the remaining 33 wards is 15sqkm. “The Siliguri Municipality was awarded the corporation status in 1994. During the delimitation exercise, the wards were not redesigned properly in many cases.
We are discussing with the state government so that it takes the initiative to ensure parity,” he said. During his weekly ‘Talk to the Mayor’ programme yesterday, a resident of New Pokaijote under ward 46, Mohit Kumar Saha, appealed to him to delineate the ward as it was big.
“It will take some time. The ward is practically big. We are at the stage of discussions. Some wards are big and some small, and we are trying to bring congruence among them,” Mr Deb said