Mamata Banerjee on Thursday pulled up the authorities of seven municipal corporations and 118 municipalities in the state for their alleged failure to ensure basic services like good roads, street lights, encroachment-free pathways and timely garbage removal.

The chief minister’s reprimand came during a video conference from Nabanna on Thursday with mayors or the heads of the board of administrators of seven municipal corporations in Calcutta, Howrah, Bidhannagar, Chandernagore, Durgapur, Asansol and Siliguri.

Although representatives of the 118 municipalities were not present in the video conference, the district magistrates were asked to pass on the instructions to the civic bodies.

The meeting assumes significance as the ruling party was trailing in 69 out of the 125 civic bodies in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The chief minister mentioned in the meeting that the civic bodies did not work well to maintain the roads and did not take enough initiatives to clear garbage on time, sources said.

“The councillors don’t roam around in their wards and that’s why they don’t get to know about the road condition and garbage removal in their wards. Now, do you expect me to look after all these,” the chief minister was quoted as saying during the meeting.

Sources said Mamata was angry when the issue of encroachment came up during the meeting.

She even pulled Calcutta city police commissioner, Vineet Goyal, asking why the police did not do anything even if people from other states were coming to Calcutta and were setting up shops by encroaching on land.

“When the police commissioner replied that the police could not do anything as the street vending committee did not permit the police to remove the encroachment, the chief minister termed it to be a lame excuse,” said a source, who was present in the meeting.

Sources in the Trinamool Congress said the chief minister was angry with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation as the ruling party was trailing behind the Opposition parties, mainly the BJP, in more than 45 wards in the city.

“The chief minister was so furious that she said during the meeting that the encroachment could not be stopped because of the nexus between the councillors and the police,” said a source.