Mayor Firhad Hakim will complete one year in office in his second term as mayor on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Hakim told The Telegraph that he rues not having been able to rein in hawkers in this one year. An incremental increase in the number of cars was one of the reasons for Kolkata’s poor air quality in winter, he said. Improving the city’s air quality was still among his priorities, Hakim added.
But initiating the augmentation of the capacity of water treatment plants at Garden Reach and Dhapa and constructing a new water treatment plant in Briji were among his achievements.
Several Kolkatans said that many of Hakim’s promises remain unfulfilled. Hawkers occupying new places on the pavement and even sitting on the road with their wares was worrying, they said.
Hakim concurred. “The hawker issue is really worrying. I am not saying hawkers should not be there but the way unregulated hawking is going on is not acceptable,” he said.
“The matter of plastics is especially worrying. I requested them to not use plastic in their stalls. But they did not listen. I have also told police. Let’s see what can be done.”
Hawking rules framed by the state government say that plastic cannot be used in the stalls. The police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have informed hawkers in Gariahat, Hatibagan and New Market about the rules but many hawkers are still using plastic sheets.
On the issue of air pollution, Hakim said he has done what is possible in a year.
The civic body has done a lot of green plantation to curb air pollution. “But the number of cars have increased manifold, which is one of the reasons for rising air pollution,” he said.
The mayor had visited the Posta truck terminal few months back in an effort to stop the entry of heavy goods vehicles into the city to curb air pollution. “The plan has not progressed much, but we still want to implement it,” he said.
Hakim said that the KMC was also building a drainage pumping station near Thanthania that would solve waterlogging woes in the area.
“We have already built drainage pumping stations in Kidderpore and Taratala. Waterlogging will no longer occur in these places like it used to earlier,” Hakim said.
The mayor’s office shared a list of some of his achievements that said 80 per cent of the 646 complaints on Talk to mayor — the weekly phone-in programme where Kolkatans can directly talk to Hakim — had been solved.
It added that 70 per cent of the 2,456 complaints made on the WhatsApp number of mayor had been solved so far.
The grievance redress mechanism set up by Hakim is also among his achievements, the office said.