Remote slums to get water supply, no drains to be left open: Hakim

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will make arrangements for the supply of water to every single household even in interior slum areas and at the same time, take measures to ensure that there is no open drain in any bustee area in the city. There are around 4,434 slums in the city, both registered and non-registered, as per records of the Bustee Development department of the civic body.

"We are taking steps to bring in more slum dwellers in the city under 'Banglar Bari' scheme. We are also making changes in the Thika Tenancy Act to bring in more people under this scheme," said Mayor Firhad Hakim after chairing a meeting on Bustee development at the KMC headquarters.

'Banglar Bari' is a rehabilitation scheme launched by the state government in 2017 under which slum-dwelling families of Kolkata and other municipalities in the state are being given a flat each.

The KMC has decided to make pathways in the slums with paver blocks to facilitate work related to utility services which are carried out frequently in the slum areas. "We have also decided to give immediate sanction against permission sought for casting of the roof of an existing slum house to ensure that the dwellers do not face difficulty during the rainy season. The clearance will contain the term 'without any prejudice' to ensure that they do not face any legal hassle in future," Hakim said.

The slum dwellers sometimes suffer from scarcity of water, particularly during the summer months when the demand increases manifold. It has been decided that the Water Supply department will set up overhead reservoirs in the slums wherever there will be availability of space. The water stored will be drawn through a pump and then will be supplied to every slum house through a dedicated pipeline.