The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has been allocated Rs 100 crore to introduce e-governance to make their services available to the common man through a web portal.
The work on this project should be completed before the 'pujas' this year, said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya at a meeting organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on image building of Kolkata.
On the issue of hawkers in the city, the mayor said that they are a part of the city and cannot be evicted unless alternative arrangements are made. "No city in the world has been able to evict hawkers at gun-point".
However, he mentioned that they should be kept under certain regulations and hawkers in the city had agreed not to sell their wares on carriageways, to stay 50 feet away from road junctions, not to build permanent structures on pavements and to leave two-thirds of pavement space for pedestrians.
Bhattacharyya was firm on the issue of eviction of hand-pulled rickshaws from the city.
He said that they were bad for the image of Kolkata and should be done away with.
The programme had been undertaken for de-silting of the sewage pipes in the city.
The diameter of the pipes have come down from seven feet to three and a half due to negligence over the last 50 years, said Bhattacharyya.
The mayor said that the roads of Kolkata can no longer be compared to the Khyber Pass, as it used to be done before, and the work culture at the municipal offices had also improved considerably and should be appreciated.
Quelle: Business Standard, 28.03.2006
