Mayor Firhad Hakim has told officials that jurisdiction issues could not be an excuse for councillors to deny civic services to citizens.

Hakim has told officials and engineers that residents could not be denied civic services even if there were issues of jurisdiction because all areas were under the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

A CMC official said there were four wards where this problem existed. Some voters of ward 114 live within the boundaries of ward 142 and vice versa. Similarly, some residents in ward 125 live in ward 126 and vice versa.

The official said the councillor of a ward would tell engineers to spend money only on his/her ward. It often happened that roads are not repaired in the area where residents voted for another ward.

“Councillor of a ward is not interested to extend civic services to people who live in their wards but are voters of another ward,” the official said.

“The mayor today said that everyone deserved the same civic services because both wards were part of the CMC,” said the official.

Hakim had convened the meeting to bring to an end the problem that has existed for many years but did not have a solution.

The official said Hakim told the councillors that rectifying the errors in the voters’ list to ensure that no area of a ward remained outside its physical limits would take time.

“Either the voter list has to be corrected or the area of the wards has to be demarcated afresh, but that would take time,” said the official.

Engineers said the lack of civic services left the areas with poor roads and open drains, among other problems.

The mayor asked engineers to repair the roads on an urgent basis. There is not enough time to lay underground sewer lines, said an engineer.

“To lay fresh sewer lines, a detailed report has to be prepared before the tender is floated. After that a contractor will be picked. All this will take some time. If the CMC elections are declared by then, the work will stop midway,” said one engineer.

It was decided at the meeting that the roads will be levelled, and potholes and craters repaired.

The mayor also asked civic engineers to extend basic civic facilities to some voters of ward 109, who vote in the Calcutta municipal elections but pay property tax to a neighbouring panchayat.