A review meeting on the issue of parts of New Town being included as part of Jyangra-Hatiara II gram panchayat was held among officials from the North 24- Parganas administration and the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) last week.
A senior official from the district administration said that this (inclusion of parts of New Town in the Jyangra-Hatiara II Gram Panchayat) was a case of overlapping jurisdiction and there was precedence where such a notification has been amended.
“The New Town authorities will send in a request for an amendment and we will forward it to the panchayat and rural development department, asking them to reconsider the move. We have already held a meeting with NKDA officials and have reviewed the matter,” the official said, asking not to be named.
A senior NKDA official termed the incident as a “mistake” and said that there would be ramifications if there is a case of dual administration in a planned city like New Town.
“If these areas indeed go under a gram panchayat, the panchayat members might want to create buildings in Eco Park as well,” the official said, tongue firmly in cheek.
Another senior NKDA official said that all these areas fell under the ambit of the agency and Schedule I of the New Town Kolkata Development Act clearly states out the boundaries where NKDA has powers to act as an urban local body.
This essentially means that NKDA has the authority to collect property taxes, sanction building plans, build and maintain roads and parks among rendering other civic services.
According to an official of the Rajarhat Block Development office, in 2007 three booths comprising two gram panchayat seats had been included in the Mahisbathan II gram panchayat. The population stood at around 3,000-odd voters then.
However, despite the inclusion, all civic services were provided by the NKDA as and when buildings started coming up in these planned areas of New Town.
In 2015, the areas falling under the Mahisbathan II gram panchayat were brought under the umbrella of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
According to the official, it was noted during a voter list review in 2017 that the number of voters in these places stood at 13,000 and the number of panchayat seats was upped to eight, comprising 13 booths and added to the Jyangra-Hatiara II gram panchayat.
Samaresh Das of the New Town Forum and News, a residents’ body, said that they had submitted a petition containing more than 8,000 signatures seeking to revoke the inclusion of New Town under the panchayat to senior officials at the panchayat and rural development department, the district administration, the NKDA as well as the Bidhannagar Commissionerate.
The campaign started by the residents across New Town aims to get revoked a notification that says eight mouzas of Mohisgote, which include pockets in Action Area IA, IB, IC, ID, IIB, IIE and III in New Town, will be included in the Jyangra Hatiara II gram panchayat area.
The notification was issued by the block development officer of Rajarhat Development Block as part of a delimitation exercise in 2017.
The bid to thrust a rural administration on an urban area has come to light in the wake of the ensuing panchayat elections, likely in March.
The places that have been included in the panchayat areas have at least two star hotels. City hotspot Eco Park, that is run and maintained by Hidco, too, has been brought under the Jyangra Hatiara II gram panchayat, an NKDA official said.
Do you, as a New Town resident, want to take part in the panchayat election? Write to saltlake@abp.in