Trinamul councillors in the city have been directed to spend nights in the homes of their constituent members to know their grievances as part of taking the Didi Ke Bolo initiative to a micro level.

This is the first time that the Trinamul Congress has asked its councillors in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation to get involved in the initiative.

Till now, only party MPs and MLAs have been carrying out the task, except when the party entrusted councillors with the job in places where there are no Trinamul MLAs.

Mayor Firhad Hakim, who met councillors and block presidents of wards where there are no Trinamul councillors, told them that the first such outreach had to be completed in at least one block in each of the 144 wards in the city by Tuesday.

By November 30, the exercise has to be completed in at least four blocks in each of the wards.

The Trinamul Congress has councillors in 124 of the 144 wards of the CMC. Opposition councillors won the rest.

“In places where Trinamul lost to Opposition parties, block presidents have been entrusted with the responsibility,” a councillor said. The CMC elections are scheduled for mid-2020.

Didi Ke Bolo is a Trinamul initiative in which elected representatives have to spend nights in the homes of the their constituent members and talk to people to know their demands and complaints. The elected representatives drink tea at a tea-stall in the morning and hoist a party flag before leaving the place. “We have to follow the same routine,” the councillor said.

Another councillor said while MPs covered legislative Assemblies under parliamentary constituencies and MLAs wards, councillors would do the job at the block-level.

The wards in the city have between 15 and 50 blocks depending on the area. Each block has 800-1,000 residents. “We will reach closer to the people by taking the Didi Ke Bolo initiative to the block-level,” the councillor said.

Hakim asked the councillors not to worry about a list — wards that would be reserved for SCs and women —– that has been doing the rounds.

“The district magistrate of South 24-Parganas will prepare the list and send it to the state election commissioner for approval. But the list

that’s been doing the rounds should not bother you,” a councillor quoted the mayor as saying.

Thirty-three per cent of the 144 seats would be reserved for women candidates and at least eight of them for scheduled caste candidates, the councillor said.