Fulfilling Mayor Subhas Chandra Bose’s ninety years old promise tops Mayor Firhad Hakim’s New Year resolution for Kolkata

Mayor Firhad Hakim has a New Year resolution; to fulfill the dream that city’s fifth Mayor Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had over 90 years back. Subhas Chandra Bose was elected Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 1930 after serving as chief executive officer under Mayor Chirraranjan Das in 1924.

“When Netaji Subhas Bose was the mayor, there was major rainfall one day leading to waterlogging everywhere particularly in Thanthania Kalibari area. Taking his officers along, wearing raincoat and gumboot, Subhas Bose walked all the way from KMC headquarters in Esplanade to Thanthania kalibari in north Kolkata. The waterlogging in that area was very high, almost above waist and even his gumboot got drenched, and he promised to put an end to the problem “, narrated Hakim in an exclusive interview with The Plurals.

“The waterlogging problem in that area still exists and I have a dream to complete what Netaji promised so many years back. Starting work this year is one of my New Year’s resolutions for the city” he added.

“Another key agenda in my wish list is to rejuvenate Adi Ganga. Apart from cleaning and making it pollution free, we are also planning to build a lock gate near Dudhghat close to the point of Adi Ganga’s entry into the city so that we can infuse fresh water in Adi Ganga” observed Mayor adding that the Friday’s clearance of 638 crores for rejuvenating Adi Ganga would come handy in his effort.

On Friday, Prime Minister Modi virtually launched sewerage infrastructure projects, worth of Rs 2550 crores, which includes Adi Ganga project.

The Mayor’s New Year resolution for the city also includes to make the city cleaner and greener with “50000 trees to be planted in the city during 2023”; more environment friendly particularly to reduce air pollution and make the thin plastic carry bag ban count.

The thin plastic carry bags less than 75 microns in thickness stand banned now and the benchmark is set to increase to 120 microns from January 2023; but on ground illegal carry bags of much thinner categories are openly being used in the shops and markets in the city.

Recently the Mayor identified increasing plastic pollution as one of the failures of his one year old regime in the current board, and also admitted that the burgeoning air pollution, especially in winter, was a worrying agenda. The data from the central pollution control board shows that the city has a poorer air quality in December, 2022 compared to last December.

“Another issue I want to improve is the condition of roads; making them more user friendly for those walking on the road” added the Mayor, reminding the work on heritage conservation and providing road signages are already in process.