The overwhelming mandate for Mamata Banerjee also means an added pressure to deliver, many MPs elected from Calcutta and its neighbouring areas said. Five MPs from Calcutta and neighbouring places chatted with Metro on Wednesday and listed their priorities.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay

Kolkata North

Won by 92,650 votes

Sudip Bandyopadhyay spent the day meeting supporters and party workers. Some garlanded him, some offered him sandesh.

Bandyopadhyay said north and central Calcutta needs to look better. “If you drive through EM Bypass, Parama flyover or go towards Eco Park, you see the beautiful face of Calcutta. Those parts are comparable with any other city,” Bandyopadhay said sitting in his Moulali flat, taking a short break from meeting supporters.

“Central and north Calcutta needs more greening. The roads need to be beautified.”

Cleaner and better ghats along the Hooghly are also on the six-time MP’s wishlist. “We have historic ghats along the Hooghly. I have used my MP funds to renovate some of them. Some more ghats need renovation. The pollution of the river has to be contained,” he said.

Untreated waste continues to be discharged into the river.

The MP wanted an uplift of the Circular Railway to make it as dependable as Metro Railway. “The Circular Railway and the Metro are in no way comparable. The latter is so clean and so well run. I want to improve the quality of Circular Railway services,” he said.

“A large number of people use it. But there needs to be a qualitative improvement in the services.”

The Circular Railway connect Dum Dum in the north and Majerhat in the south and the train runs along the Hooghly for a large part.

Renovation and modernisation of some of the old
bazaars — like the ones in Maniktala and Entally — is also on his mind. “I can allocate money from the annual funds given to an MP but the bulk of the funding has to come from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which manages the markets,” he said.

Mala Roy

Kolkata South

Won by 1,87,231

More parks and more open spaces are needed to combat increasing temperatures and climate change, Mala Roy said.

She also wants to clean and restore water bodies that are in a poor shape.

“There are parts of south Calcutta, especially in Behala and Joka, where there are not enough parks. But there is space to build parks. There is vacant land with the state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation that can be turned into parks,” said Roy, elected for the second term to Parliament. Roy is also chairperson of the KMC.

“Protecting open spaces and water bodies is very important given the scale of climate change that is now apparent,” she said. Water bodies cool down a place and protect people.

Roy spoke about creating more space for the community. There are many wards in south Calcutta that still do not have a government-run community hall that people can hire at affordable rates.

“Community halls are very important for every neighbourhood. Social events, personal events like weddings can be organised in these halls. It is my goal to build more community halls, if possible one in every ward,” she said.

Sayani Ghosh

Jadavpur

Won by 2,58,201 votes

Sayani Ghosh spent the morning and much of the afternoon at home, taking calls from party workers. In the evening, she visited Baruipur East and Sonarpur North Assembly constituencies, both of which are in the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency.

No one should suffer from water shortage, said Ghosh. She was aware of water scarcity in parts of Jadavpur and Mukundapur that haunt people every summer.

“I have felt during my campaign that water shortage is an important issue in Mukundapur (Ward 109) and places around Avishikta (Ward 106). There is water scarcity in Sonarpur, too. The problems get more pronounced during summer,” Ghosh said.

“I know the state government is trying to address the problem, but this needs huge funds. I will try to see that funds from the state as well as the Centre are available to solve the problem.”

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is building a water treatment plant in New Garia that will produce 10 million gallons of potable water a day. The plant is supposed to be ready in less than two years but engineers have also said that the additional water can turn out to be inadequate within a few years because of a burgeoning population along EM Bypass.

“I said during my campaign that I will plant as many trees as the number of votes by which I would lead in a ward. I will sit down with councillors to know their demands,” Ghosh said.

She promised to open an office in each of the seven Assembly constituencies in the Jadavpur Lok Sabha area. “I will also open a helpline through which the people in my constituency can reach me, once a week maybe,” she said.

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar

Barasat

Won by 1,14,189 votes

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar spent the greater part of the day meeting party workers and residents of the area who visited her to congratulate her on her fourth win.

Creating more jobs and bringing in small and medium industries is Ghosh Dastidar’s target. “I will try in my way to create more jobs for the local youth,” she said.

“I have plans to set up skill development centres that will impart technical training in a range of subjects like cloud computing and automobile repairs,” she said.

“The centres would be set up using the MP local area development (MPLAD) funds,” Ghosh Dastidar said.

She plans to speak to the heads of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, and
the municipalities in Madhyamgram, Ashokenagar and Barasat and work with them to expedite the process of filling vacant posts “so people staying in those areas get jobs”.

The poor condition of the roads in Salt Lake, Rajarhat, Deganga and Madhyamgram has also caught her attention. “The roads will be newly paved,” she said.

She also wants to bring more areas under CCTV coverage.

Sougata Roy

Dum Dum

Won by 70,660 votes

Sougata Roy spent the day meeting party workers, neighbours and others who came to congratulate him on winning a fourth term as MP.

More Metro services at night will benefit many, Roy said, and promised to use his influence to see it happen. “I understand that a lot of people depend on Metro. If the timing of the last train is extended and the frequency of the service at night is increased, people will benefit,” he said.

The last trains from Kavi Subhas (New Garia) and Dum Dum leaves at 11pm. And the ones before that leave both stations at 9.40pm. The huge gap translates into a significant waiting time for the commuters and many have raised questions about that.

Waterlogging across Dum Dum, South Dum Dum and Panihati is a chronic issue and voters have flagged it several times during the campaign, Roy said.

“There are places in Dum Dum such as Motijheel, SK Deb Road, Madhugarh, Bediapara and Debendranagar that get waterlogged during rain. This is a common problem,” said Roy, a former professor of physics.

“I will work with the local municipalities, the MLAs to find a solution to this chronic issue.”

Roy said he had already initiated a process to improve drainage in these places in Dum Dum.