Saptarshi Deb, the 33-year-old Left Front candidate fielded by the Sanyukta Morcha, may be fighting his first election but the Presidency University alumnus who stays in New Town has politics in his genes.
⚫ Your father Gautam Deb has a link with the birth of New Town.
Yes. As housing minister in the Left Front government, he had spearheaded the New Town project in 1998. An unplanned urban explosion was happening in Calcutta and middle class residents were getting pushed out of the city due to economic reasons. An urban housing crisis was looming. The housing department took up MIG complexes along the Bypass to mitigate the crisis. But my father realised more needed to be done and proposed a township, which Jyoti babu (Basu, the chief minister) encouraged. The Major Arterial Road was the first construction. Along it, complexes like East Enclave and Eastern High started coming up. My father says the road was the first advertisement for New Town as people started using it to reach the airport.
⚫ What was the development vision for the township?
Development was to take place phasewise, hence the action areas were demarcated. In a few years, Buddha jethu (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) became chief minister. It was a boom time for the IT industry. Sector V took off. DLF 1 and 2 happened, Candor Tower, Unitech.... IT parks started opening one after another. The vision for New Town was it would not be a sleeping city, like Salt Lake, where people come to sleep after spending the day elsewhere at work. It would have its own vibrant economy, which would be based on soft industries like FinTech and IT. The financial hub, which was supposed to have come up, was to have share trading, banking… A smart city which would give employment opportunities to the city’s educated youth. We want to return to that vision. New Town will be a prominent part of the industrial development plan we have for Bengal.
⚫ Will you revive Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which the Trinamul government has abolished?
Our party policy makers are the right people to comment on that. But SEZ was a part of the Left Front industrial plan, so it could be in our plans. We have seen flight of industry, with the departure of the Tatas (from Singur). SEZ hok na hok, that trust has to be revived. The Silicon Valley (opposite City Centre 2) is a farce. We want to see what is happening within its walls. It is not enough to hand over land. You have to create an investment-friendly atmosphere. Hassle-free land acquisition has to be offered. Take Shapoorji Pallonji (Sukhobrishti). It was to be Asia’s biggest mass housing project. The government had mobilised land for it. No private player could do it on its own.
⚫ Why has work got stalled there?
It must be the company’s internal problem in recent times. Back then, Hidco’s initiative had paved the way for 22,000 flats to come up. When it will be complete, it will be a Grade II municipality on its own, housing a lakh people. The space opposite Eco Park was to have been the central business district. The hotels came up but post-Singur, post-Left Front, the investments dried up and the businesses never materialised.
⚫ What are you saying in street-corner meets?
Public transport is a problem in New Town and totos cost Rs 50-60. If the solution is owning a car, then it does not help the middle class. There is no government hospital. There are no government schools. Even Salt Lake has Bidhannagar Municipal School. The property tax is exorbitant. Residents are voiceless with regard to development policies. NKDA and Hidco are accountable only to the state government and not to any elected body. A city council could be formed with elected block-wise representatives. Do not let them handle the NKDA funds but let them have a voice.
⚫ The Left Front has fielded several young faces like you.
Even a month and half ago, I did not know I’d contest (smiles). In my constituency, 50 per cent voters are below 40. So it is giving me an edge. I am talking of employment and getting great resonance. I am much more approachable. Khub hnatchhi. I am going door to door almost like panchayat elections. I have also created a three-minute digital introduction for social media. Life is hectic but nice. Since I have been fielded from my home constituency, I can come home (in BF Block, New Town) at night and get to meet neighbourhood uncles and aunts doing their morning walk when I leave for the day.
⚫ Who will come second?
BJP is not a factor here, though the contest will not be bipolar as it was in 2016. They did get 37 per cent votes from this Assembly segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, thanks to post-Pulwama patriotic wave, while we got 10 per cent but we have always done badly in Lok Sabha polls since 1977. The seat has 35 per cent Muslim voters and TMC’s Muslim support base is fast eroding since 2019. ISF (Indian Secular Front, led by cleric Abbas Siddique of the shrine of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly) is with us. They are a youth-driven organisation. We are focusing on booths where we did well in 2016 but not in 2019. In New Town, we did much better than in the rest of the Assembly segment in 2019, getting 20 per cent votes. I think 37 per cent will be a winning aggregate.
Rajarhat New Town
