A notification issued by the block development officer of Rajarhat Development Block and the panchayat election office has included large swathes of New Town in the Jyangra Hatiara Gram Panchayat II.
The move has prompted a large section of residents who live in the planned Action Areas of New Town to embark on a signature campaign from Thursday for which volunteers will be going door-to-door to collect signatures asking the state government as well as the election commission to revoke the move ahead of the panchayat polls scheduled in the state in March.
The notification that has been issued, mentions that large parts of New Town Action Area I, II and III would be included in Jyangra-Hatiara II gram panchayat.
Since the day New Town came into being, these areas are administered and have had their civic services rendered by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA).
The agency is in charge of property tax collection, issuing of birth and death certificates, property mutation as well as day to day rendering of civic services including building and maintenance of the road network, street lighting systems, door-to-door garbage collection and maintaining the parks and boulevards across all three Action Areas among others.
The NKDA, although a notified authority, functions as a urban local body much like the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
According to the Form A and B of the Rajarhat Development Block, North-24-Parganas, eight mouzas of Mohisgote falling in different areas like Action Area IA, IB, IC, ID, IIB, IIE and pockets of Action Area III would be included in Jyangra Hatiara II gram panchayat area, according to the notification.
These areas used to be a part of the Mahisbathan II gram panchayat but since these places have been included in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation ahead of the 2015 municipal polls these places have now been brought under the ambit of the Jyangra Hatiara II gram panchayat.
A block development officer told The Telegraph Salt Lake that there were a couple of panchayat seats covering the planned areas of New Town. After delimitation, the number of seats has gone up to eight.
The New Town Forum and News (NTFN) — a residents’ body of New Town — has held multiple meetings among its members as well as residents and has planned the mass signature campaign to try and revoke the move.
Samaresh Das, chairman of NTFN, said that they would start the signature campaign from Thursday where a set of volunteers would visit not only the places that have been included in the delimitation process but across all three Action Areas of New Town.
“Our volunteers will start visiting housing complexes, gated communities and cooperative societies alike to gather signatures. We as residents are united as we don’t want New Town that is one of the newest satellite cities of Kolkata to be administered by gram panchayat members,” said Das.
Ankur Roy Chowdhury, vice-chairman of NTFN, said the sheer disparity between urban areas and rural areas that are generally governed by gram panchayats should have been taken into account before issuing such a notification.
“It is like comparing apples and oranges. Moreover, we have been paying taxes to the NKDA and the expenditure for the level of civic services that are rendered in New Town by the civic body will be more than the entire budget of a gram panchayat. The panchayat members themselves will be in trouble as they won’t be able to decide where to allocate more funds, the rural areas or the planned areas that need a certain level of civic services,” said Roy Chowdhury.
According to Das, they are aiming to collect at least 6,000 signatures and once the mark is reached they will send in their petition to the state election office, office of the police commissioner of Bidhannagar among others.
“If it is not revoked we will then approach the Calcutta High Court through proper channels,” said Das.
The state municipal affairs and urban development minister Firhad Hakim however clarified that the NKDA would be responsible for providing civic amenities to New Town.
“NKDA will act as the nodal agency and will continue to provide civic services to New Town,” Hakim said.
Anupam Ghosh, a state committee member of the BJP who stays in New Town’s DB Block, said that the delimitation move was an entirely political one aimed at creating “a few Trinamul Congress leaders to put an end to infighting”.
“The ruling party knows that they will not perform very well in the panchayat seats as they are primarily dominated by the Matua community. They have included the planned areas as they know that most people who live gated communities will not go out to vote and then they will be able to capture the booths easily. Moreover an urban area like New Town can never be governed by a gram panchayat,” said Ghosh.
According to him, they have already visited the Rajarhat Block Development Office and are planning to submit a deputation there as well as the office of the Bidhannagar sub divisional office In Salt Lake in the next few days.
Left Front leader Saptarshi Deb, who incidentally is the son of former housing minister Gautam Deb under whose stewardship New Town was born, too termed the move as “stupid that will have far-reaching consequences”. “We also want an urban local body that will be in charge of New Town and to have free and fair elections here. However including ultra urban and modern areas under a gram panchayat is both funny and worrisome. We will do everything In our power to protest this,” said Deb.
Do New Town residents want to vote in the upcoming panchayat polls?
Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abp.in