Trinomool Congress Party (TMC) swept to power in the 141 – ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) with 95 seats in June 2010. Sovon Chatterjee, a loyalist of party supremo, Mamata Banerjee (better known as ‘Jol Sovon ’, since he was the mayor in council in charge of city water supply between 2000-2005) was chosen by the later as the mayor of kolkata. With Chatterjee’s elevation to the post of the mayor hopes were raised, and rightly so, that the water distribution in the city would improve. But in the seven and half months that he has been at the helm we did not hear much about the water supply in the city. Of course, he made headlines by not attending the meetings convened by the state Urban Development minister, by leading a procession to the Bhowanipore police station, by declining to install water metres, by gracing various inaugurations and foundation stone laying ceremonies of the Railway ministry and for various other reasons. He also made it to the headlines of all leading newspapers when he was ‘playfully’ pushed into the swimming pool by his party chief or when he splashed around at the Ganga Sagar. But rarely have we seen or heard him hitting the headlines doing the job for which he has been elected by the people.
But Sovon Chatterjee has endeared himself to the people of his ward and ensured his sixth election to the Corporation by gifting the residents of his ward four fountains at the Parnasree Lake. Make no mistake – they are no ordinary fountains. Three of these will float on the lake while the fixed one will fill our ears with musical tones all day long. In days not too long ago floating fountains graced only the world’s majestic places like royal palaces and state buildings! (So much for ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’!!) Installing these fountains would cost a whopping Rs. 3.5 crore. According to a senior official of the KMC parks department, the Corporation would have to shell out, on a moderate estimate, Rs. 80 – 90 lakh per year for the maintenance of the fountains including electricity charges.
Three months after assuming office, Chatterjee decided that he would need the services of two brand new Scorpio SUVs in order to serve the people of Kolkata. As if this was not enough, fresh orders to buy three luxury vans were placed in the month of October to the KMC motor vehicles department. One of these luxury vans is a 10-seater. The other two vans, as per the instructions of the mayor, were converted into video-conference coach. Even by a moderate estimate the Trinamool run Corporation has spent Rs. 65 lakh of taxpayers’ money and that too within just five months of assuming office. Now the question which is bothering us is what purpose will this fleet of super expensive cars serve? Well, the citizens of Kolkata are being treated to a hitherto unusual sight of a long mayoral convoy with most of the cars tagging along. Chatterjee reasons that the Scorpios are a part of his security (strange the previous mayor, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a Senior Advocate of Calcutta High Court and the ex – Advocate General for the state of Tripura, did not require such elaborate security arrangements). He said that the two luxury vans would be used for on-road video conferences with KMC officials under “special circumstances”. The mayor sees nothing wrong in this acquisition or in the expenditure. Mamata Banerjee, who likes to portray herself as the epitome of simple living and the lone crusader against all wrongdoings is very mysteriously silent over the whole issue. Or should we assume that it is her way of indulging or repaying Sovon Chatterjee for having remained loyal to her when all others had deserted her? Whatever may be the reason the fact remains that taxpayers’ money was wasted to fulfill the whim of the mayor.
The water from the river Ganga is filtered at great cost and supplied to the citizens of Kolkata as drinking water. 35 to 50 percent of this filtered water flows down the drain, literally. That means almost 10 million gallon of filtered water is wasted daily. The financial implication is wastage to the tune of Rs. 4 lakh daily. Even though the mayor is not willing to concede to this amount he had no way out but to accede to the fact that transportation of water from Palta causes a lot of leakage due to the faulty pipelines. Each and every pipeline would have to be either repaired or replaced and it would involve huge money. The Kolkata Municipal Corporatio has money to install and maintain floating and musical fountains to entertain citizens but does not have enough money to repair and replace pipes that distribute drinking water to the people of the city! The mayor has money to indulge in his fad for SUVs and luxury vans but KMC does not have the money to repair or replace the century old pipes to stop the wastage of filtered drinking water that is processed at a huge cost. ( So much for ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’!!)
Shouldn’t maa, mati, manush shudder in horror to think what lies in store for them if TMC, of which Sovon Chatterjee is a very important component, brings about the “ poriborton ” in the forthcoming assembly election? Can this party be trusted to provide better governance than the incumbent government? A party with misplaced priorities and no sense of governance cannot be trusted with running the state. A party, which talks about the ordinary people only to garner votes, but has scant regard for their welfare, cannot be trusted with the reins of the government. A party which is all sound and fury and no substance can not be entrusted with a responsibility that affects the lives and livelihoods of crores of people. Running a government is not about making tall promises. It involves a certain amount of insight and genuine compassion for the ordinary people which the TMC and its leaders lack. Fiery speeches do not make a great and compassionate administrator.
Sources : Times of India, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Tara TV
But Sovon Chatterjee has endeared himself to the people of his ward and ensured his sixth election to the Corporation by gifting the residents of his ward four fountains at the Parnasree Lake. Make no mistake – they are no ordinary fountains. Three of these will float on the lake while the fixed one will fill our ears with musical tones all day long. In days not too long ago floating fountains graced only the world’s majestic places like royal palaces and state buildings! (So much for ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’!!) Installing these fountains would cost a whopping Rs. 3.5 crore. According to a senior official of the KMC parks department, the Corporation would have to shell out, on a moderate estimate, Rs. 80 – 90 lakh per year for the maintenance of the fountains including electricity charges.
Three months after assuming office, Chatterjee decided that he would need the services of two brand new Scorpio SUVs in order to serve the people of Kolkata. As if this was not enough, fresh orders to buy three luxury vans were placed in the month of October to the KMC motor vehicles department. One of these luxury vans is a 10-seater. The other two vans, as per the instructions of the mayor, were converted into video-conference coach. Even by a moderate estimate the Trinamool run Corporation has spent Rs. 65 lakh of taxpayers’ money and that too within just five months of assuming office. Now the question which is bothering us is what purpose will this fleet of super expensive cars serve? Well, the citizens of Kolkata are being treated to a hitherto unusual sight of a long mayoral convoy with most of the cars tagging along. Chatterjee reasons that the Scorpios are a part of his security (strange the previous mayor, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a Senior Advocate of Calcutta High Court and the ex – Advocate General for the state of Tripura, did not require such elaborate security arrangements). He said that the two luxury vans would be used for on-road video conferences with KMC officials under “special circumstances”. The mayor sees nothing wrong in this acquisition or in the expenditure. Mamata Banerjee, who likes to portray herself as the epitome of simple living and the lone crusader against all wrongdoings is very mysteriously silent over the whole issue. Or should we assume that it is her way of indulging or repaying Sovon Chatterjee for having remained loyal to her when all others had deserted her? Whatever may be the reason the fact remains that taxpayers’ money was wasted to fulfill the whim of the mayor.
The water from the river Ganga is filtered at great cost and supplied to the citizens of Kolkata as drinking water. 35 to 50 percent of this filtered water flows down the drain, literally. That means almost 10 million gallon of filtered water is wasted daily. The financial implication is wastage to the tune of Rs. 4 lakh daily. Even though the mayor is not willing to concede to this amount he had no way out but to accede to the fact that transportation of water from Palta causes a lot of leakage due to the faulty pipelines. Each and every pipeline would have to be either repaired or replaced and it would involve huge money. The Kolkata Municipal Corporatio has money to install and maintain floating and musical fountains to entertain citizens but does not have enough money to repair and replace pipes that distribute drinking water to the people of the city! The mayor has money to indulge in his fad for SUVs and luxury vans but KMC does not have the money to repair or replace the century old pipes to stop the wastage of filtered drinking water that is processed at a huge cost. ( So much for ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’!!)
Shouldn’t maa, mati, manush shudder in horror to think what lies in store for them if TMC, of which Sovon Chatterjee is a very important component, brings about the “ poriborton ” in the forthcoming assembly election? Can this party be trusted to provide better governance than the incumbent government? A party with misplaced priorities and no sense of governance cannot be trusted with running the state. A party, which talks about the ordinary people only to garner votes, but has scant regard for their welfare, cannot be trusted with the reins of the government. A party which is all sound and fury and no substance can not be entrusted with a responsibility that affects the lives and livelihoods of crores of people. Running a government is not about making tall promises. It involves a certain amount of insight and genuine compassion for the ordinary people which the TMC and its leaders lack. Fiery speeches do not make a great and compassionate administrator.
Sources : Times of India, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Tara TV
KMC takes over Uttam Manch from a private owner at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crores . No money to improve basic services but plenty to splurge on reviving Bengali cinema and theatre . How messed up the sense of priority of these people are !!
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