July 6, 2010 2:28:11 am
Despite Mayor Sovan Chatterjees tall claims of keeping civic services normal on bandh day,average attendance at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) remained dismal on Monday,with only the mayor himself and a few Mayor-in-Council (MMIC) members like Sashi Panja (Health),Partha Pratim Hazari (Prevention of Food Adulteration and TB Hospitals) and Rajib Deb (Drainage) attending office. KMC Chairman Sachhidananda Banerjee was also present at office.
The mayor was emphatic in his statement that the KMC was functioning almost normally inspite of the bandh. The attendance rate in the drainage and conservancy departments has been very high. We have also tried to provide emergency services as far as possible. About 60 per cent of the labour force in the conservancy department has turned up on time at their respective places of work. A sizable chunk of controlling officers have also turned up, said Chatterjee.
Congratulating those who had turned up to tend to their duties defying the bandh,Chatterjee announced in clear terms that one days Casual Leave (CL) would be deducted from the leave records of all those who stayed away from duty,whatever the reasons might have been. He also said that the various projects undertaken by the KMC in different parts of the city were carried out uninterrupted on Monday.
Our staff have cleared garbage from every locality. The Conservancy department has done excellent work today. Attendance was almost 85 per cent there. But after a level,our hands are tied the trucks which dispose the garbage from vats are hired ones and they did not turn up today, said Trinamool Congress MLA Sovan Deb Chattopadhyay.
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Rajib Deb (MMIC Drainage) was quite happy with a 65 per cent attendance of employees in his department.
The mayor,however,pointed out that his party supported the issue on which the bandh was called. We are also quite sympathetic to the cause for which the bandh has been called today. But we believe in work over everything else. A days cease-work is not the way to protest. Many foreign tourists and dignitaries visit the city¿ their schedules are planned much before and this kind of bandh jeopardise ever kind of pre-planning, the mayor noted.
Incidentally,the Governor of Macedonia met the mayor on Monday and proposed to provide monetary assistance for the setting up of a statue of Mother Teresa at Park Street.
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