India News | Most Councillors Are Not Corrupt, Bengal Urban Development Minister

Kolkata, Jul 28 (PTI) West Bengal Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim Friday said most councillors of urban local bodies in the state are not corrupt.

Responding to a comment by BJP legislator Shankar Ghosh in the Assembly, Hakim, also the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, said that fingers should not be raised at every councillor and most of them work for the people selflessly and hence are popular among the electorate.

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Ghosh, the BJP MLA from Siliguri, earlier commented that a "sizeable number of councillors (of the ruling party) have amassed properties after being elected which have become glaring before their voters."

Ghosh was taking part in a discussion on the development of urban bodies before the passage of the West Bengal town and country planning and development amendment bill.

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In reply, Hakim said "Every councillor is not the same, not everyone is corrupt. There may be one or two cases but the majority of councillors are not like that. Fingers should not be pointed to each and every councillor."

"Our thrust is on development everywhere. But if any illegal construction is reported we take steps to raze it down," he added.

The remarks come in the backdrop of allegations by the opposition that ruling party councillors in municipalities, corporations have amassed huge properties.

Hakim further said a bill was tabled in the House for bringing parity in fees paid by citizens to build residential premises in the Kolkata metropolis which had been "discriminatory with the addition of new areas with the city proper in the past couple of years."

As per the earlier 1914 regulations, people building houses within 1 to 100 wards in the Kolkata metropolis have been paying Kolkata Improvement Trust which later became Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority a substantial amount as development fee in addition to the amount payable to Kolkata Municipal Corporation thus straining them for two times, he said.

In contrast, people in the added areas of the metropolis - from wards 101 to 140 - had to pay only a one-time tax to build their premises, he added.

"We have decided there should not be two sets of rules for people living in wards which had been known as Kolkata for years and which were included with the city in later years. If citizens living in Wards from 1 to 100 feel they have to cough up more than people living in Wards 101-140, that is unfair. We have decided to do away with that," he told reporters in his chamber in Assembly.

To a question Hakim said, with this, the government will lose Rs 19 lakh annually, "but we can not be driven by monetary considerations."

To another question, he said the existing fee charged for such private constructions ranged between Rs 20,000-35,000 depending on the valuation of the property and the location.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)