KOLKATA: Paray Samadhan (solution at the neighbourhood), a state government initiative to reach out to citizens in their neighbourhoods instead of calling them to government offices, was launched across the state on Monday.
In the city, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) organized the citizen-friendly camps in 16 wards and invited the residents to register their grievances. Across the state, 47,974 applications were filed at 1,396 camps.
On the first day of the initiative to decentralize governance, citizens interacted with the civic officials and requested them to take effective steps to augment water supply, drainage upgrade, cleaning of streets, better maintenance of roads and neighbourhood parks, among other areas civic and infrastructure-related problems. However, the attendance on Monday was thin at each of these camps, said a civic official.
According to a KMC official, 16 camps were set up in areas like Bagbazar, Raja Dinendra Street, Jorabagan, Surya Sen Street, Alipore, Chetla, Tollygunge and Patuli, among other areas. The civic officials from local borough offices attended these camps. The officials listened to the grievances from the residents who had turned up at the camps.
Paray Samadhan is aimed at resolving neighbourhood- and community-level issues that will require funds till Rs 5 lakhs. Projects that will require funds between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 crore will also be taken up in a staggered manner. Nine senior bureaucrats will be part of a state-level task force that will monitor all work till implementation. KMDA CEO Antara Bhattacharya, a task force member, will supervise all projects under this scheme in Kolkata.
A KMC official who attended a Paray Samadhan in a north Kolkata neighbourhood said few people were aware of the camps on Monday. “I have interacted with not more than 10 residents since morning. I have asked them to take up the matter of with other residents of the neighbourhood so that the benefits go to a larger section of the society,” the civic official said.
According to a KMC official from the borough office, they were asked to note down the problems being faced by local residents and keep track of them till they were attended to. “We have been asked to take every minute detail of a civic problem — from its origin to its nature and probable causes. We will be dealing with infrastructure and essential civic services and effective steps will be taken to redress such problems in consultation with the senior officials posted at the KMC headquarters,” said a KMC official from a borough office.
