Hakim to visit all civic bodies across state to ensure amenities reach each resident

KOLKATA: In a sincere bid to monitor whether civic amenities are properly reaching to the residents of the urban local bodies (ULBs)across the state, Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim will be visiting one municipality every week and will preside over a programme related with extending benefits and take stock of whether the different services rendered by the civic bodies are reaching properly to the beneficiaries.

Hakim who is also the city Mayor has started his ‘municipality visit’ programme by paying a visit to Ranaghat municipality on Saturday (January 21). He inaugurated Karma Tirtha and handed over keys for beneficiaries under Awas Yojana and also inaugurated the website and app of the ULB. “Several projects are going on in different ULBs across the state to ensure the best of civic amenities to the common people. The chairman and the chairmen-in-council of the different ULBs are responsible for keeping track of these various projects. However, the minister from now on has decided to reach out to every civic body to monitor the development work by himself,” a senior official of the Municipal Affairs department said.

The various works going on in the municipalities include water supply projects, drainage pumping stations, solid waste management, setting up of health centres etc. The distribution of several beneficial schemes of the state government is also delivered through the ULBs. The minister will take stock of the progress of the projects and also find out whether the benefits are being extended to the people properly.

There are only a few municipalities in the state that organises public interactive programmes.

Hakim in Kolkata hosts the ‘Talk To Mayor‘ programme every Friday for an hour where residents can narrate their grievances directly to the Mayor. In Siliguri Municipal Corporation too, Mayor Goutam Deb holds a similar programme.

“The minister feels that time-bound service to the people should be the main responsibility of the ULBs. So he has decided to himself take stock of the projects by visiting the different ULBs on his own rather than sending any official for such work,” the official added.