Talk To Mayor: 'Out of 646 Complaints Received In A Year, 80% Addressed'
A year after completion of one year of the new civic board of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, city Mayor Firhad Hakim on Wednesday presented a report card on the progress of work.
"I had taken oath on December 28 when COVID-19 pandemic was prevalent. I had then declared that I will present a report card of work done by the KMC and also the work which is to be done . Our priority has been to ensure the best of civic amenities and we have tried our best in this regard," Hakim said.
According to Hakim, 'Talk to Mayor' and 'Show to Your Mayor' have been the major initiatives. In 'Talk to Mayor', 646 complaints had been recieved, out of which 80 per cent had been addressed. In 'Show to Your Mayor' where people can send complaints with pictures directly to the WhatsApp number of the Mayor, about 2456 complaints had been received and more than 70 per cent has been resolved.
"We have 79 drainage pumping stations and another 5 will be set up in the coming year. There are 73 community halls under KMC. Another 71 will come up in the coming year. The water supply network of the KMC has been augmented to a good extent," he added. A 100-bed hospital in Kidderpore will be opened up during New year. There are 59 KMC health centres and another 24 are being added.
Special emphasis has been given on augmenting the green cover and conserving the waterbodies. The unit area assessment system has also been simplified.
The Mayor was also candid enough to confess that he had dreamt of completing the work for preventing water logging in Thanthania area in Kolkata but he had failed to do so. He promised to do so in the coming year. The Mayor also regretted that rampant advertisement hoardings and banner cannot be curbed for preventing visual pollution. "Advertisement policy has been framed. We will be implementing this," he maintained.
He added that KMC's effort to dissuade hawkers from using plastic to cover their stalls have also not yielded fruitful results. This will be implemented strictly with police assistance to prevent fire hazards, he added.
