Mayor inaugurates water booster pumping station at Prafulla Kanan

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Thursday inaugurated a water booster pumping station at Prafulla Kanan in southern fringes on Thursday afternoon.

The booster pumping station will provide drinking water to 94,000 people living in wards 112 and 113 (partial) and 114. The state Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and state Sports Minister Aroop Biswas were present at the function.

Chatterjee said the supply of free filtered water by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was highest in the country. In the hi-tech cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad, people living in posh areas had to depend heavily on water tankers. 

The picture is not bright in Mumbai and Chennai where people have to buy drinking water at a premium rate. But because of proper planning by the civic authorities, people were getting enough drinking water. 

KMC has banned the old deep tubewells which used to supply drinking water in vast areas in Tollygunge and Jadavpur and people of these areas are now getting piped water. 

He said there were some pockets in the city where there was drinking water problem and this will be ironed out soon. 

He said Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had said that drinking water would be tax free. “This is a major step as the cost of production of drinking water is going up. But as the state government has given topmost priority to the welfare of people, it is providing drinking water free of cost,” he said.

Hakim said in most of the municipalities, people were getting free drinking water under water supply scheme. The water supply network will be intensified to provide more water to people. The state government is committed to provide better service to people, he maintained.