Bally Municipality admin vows cleaner city & better civic services
Kolkata: Rana Chatterjee, the newly appointed administrator of Bally Municipality in Howrah, has pledged to work towards transforming the civic body into a garbage-free municipality while improving key amenities such as roads, water supply, and street lighting for residents’ benefit.
He is also committed to ensuring that all social welfare schemes introduced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee effectively reach people in his area.
Bally MLA and paediatrician Rana Chatterjee is expected to be at the helm of the municipality till the municipal elections, which has been pending in Bally for the last eight years. The SDO of Bally was doubling as the chairman of the municipality and there were allegations from a section of residents of not getting proper civic amenities.
“I will ensure that roads damaged by rain are repaired before Durga Puja. Another top priority is resolving the drinking water problem in certain pockets of the municipality. We have already identified a site behind Rabindra Bhavan, beside the river, for setting up an intake jetty that will improve water supply,” Chatterjee said.
The existing intake jetty at Jagannath Ghat in Belur is failing to deliver the desired results due to heavy silt deposition and engineers have confirmed that it cannot be overhauled.
As part of efforts to upgrade health infrastructure, the defunct Kedarnath Hospital under Bally Municipality—shut since 2018 because of its dilapidated condition—will be demolished and a new hospital building will be constructed in its place “The demolition orders have already been received from the state government,” informed Chatterjee.
The Liluah Silver Jubilee Hospital, another civic body-maintained hospital, will also witness infrastructural upgradation.
“I will try my best to boost door-to-door garbage collection and gradually move towards a VAT-free Bally. But, for this, awareness among the people is of prime importance. They should not litter the streets indiscriminately and should not throw plastic in drains,” Chatterjee remarked.
