New Town may have roads smoother and streetlights brighter than the rest of the city but its residents still have a long list of demands.
Representatives of 20 blocks and 21 housing societies gathered at Rabindra Tirtha on Sunday to discuss their common problems and formed a collective body to address the same.
The initiative for New Town Residents’ Welfare Forum was taken by 11 residents and many others joined them after Sunday’s meeting. “While chatting with neighbours on morning walks, I realised that the problems we face in our block are faced by neighbours in other blocks too. So why not try to solve them together with a strong and united voice,” said Lutful Alam, who along with Samir Gupta, have been appointed joint convenors of the body. “We will now take deputations to the authorities on behalf of the group.”
Here are some of the issues residents raised —
Property tax pointers
Rajat Ghosh of Balaka Abasan said he gets property tax bill of about Rs 450 while his neighbour, living in a flat of the same dimensions in the same building, pays about Rs 600. “How does this make sense? Our complex is full of such tax anomalies,” he said.
Many claimed the tax slabs were rather high. “My locality is apparently in the commercial zone so we are made to pay higher taxes. But what benefit are we getting because of being in this zone? Pollution from heavy traffic and radiation from all the mobile towers,” said Subhash Ghosh of Animikha complex.
Senior citizens were also cross at having to pay Rs 250 to “tax sathi” for helping them pay taxes online. Told that residents were free to pay it themselves, they claimed the system was too complicated. “Our generation is not not tech-savvy,” said the 70-year-old Ghosh.
However Anik Chowdhury of AB Block asked the group to be careful what they wish for. “Contrary to what my neighbours are claiming, the tax here is not exorbitant,” said Chowdhury, who has studied tax structures around the country and worked on the smart city project of Bhopal. “We pay only property tax whereas others also pay taxes for water and garbage collection. We shouldn’t pressure the authorities such that they reduce property tax but are forced to introduce others.”
Residents want more community halls, like the one coming up near Biswa Bangla Gate. (Mayukh Sengupta)
Illegal use of land
Biman Sammadar was upset at how residents were using their homes for commercial purposes. “House-owners are letting their premises out to PGs or, worse, brokers who are conducting immoral activities here. We have been forced to call the police and even storm into these houses ourselves to catch such miscreants,” said the resident of CC Block.
Sammadar also questioned the presence of star hotels in a middle class neighbourhood. “There is a socio-economic divide between the two and elderly residents are uncomfortable with the profile of guests doing the rounds,” he said.
Dilip Kumar Saha of BA Block had issues with banquet halls and guest houses mushrooming everywhere. “They do not have their own parking space so they park their cars blocking our streets. Their generators billow smoke and emit noises, they burst fire crackers at unearthly hours, they pile up their waste the morning after that decomposes and renders the entire lane smelly,” he said.
Many residents said they wanted their own community halls.
Residents wish the subway outside Nazrul Tirtha had escalators. Picture by Mayukh Sengupta
Residents want more public toilets, like the one under Biswa Bangla Gate. Picture by Mayukh Sengupta
“Every year after Durga puja, we have to pull down the pandal. Before the Pujas, drama rehearsals take place in my garage as we don’t have a hall. Why can’t we have our own space like in Salt Lake?” said Narendra Nath Chakraborty of BC Block.
The township has many banquet halls but Chakraborty pointed out that it also has a huge low income group population which cannot afford these halls. “If we have community halls managed by block associations we can price them reasonably,” he said.
Health and education
Biswajit Das of AA Block was concerned about the mosquito menace. “In the past year, my wife, son and mother-in-law have all got dengue,” he said. “Construction companies bring their mixer machines and leave them open, filling up with stagnant water to breed the pests.”
Byomkesh Chakraborty wanted affordable government hospitals. “Domestic helps and drivers are components of our township too. If they call in sick we are paralysed. The government needs to build hospitals for them,” said the BE Block resident.
Archan Patranabish, who lives near the Owl Junction, said they needed 24-hour medicine shops. “If we need medicines in the dead of the night our nearest option is Sector III in Salt Lake and that’s just too far,” said Biswajit Das.
Bengali-medium government schools are needed too. “They have schools in the villages of Rajarhat but quality is so poor that the kids only go there to have lunch,” Byomkesh added.
But Anik Chowdhury was sceptical of these suggestions. “It’s not enough to seek schools,” he said. “New Town has a government college but our domestic help — who is enrolled there — doesn’t go as no classes are held. As for government hospitals, they are godforsaken across the state. It would be more practical if the authorities issued cards to the elderly to avail discounts at existing private hospitals.”
Chowdhury also said that medicine shops — a point every second person spoke of — had been allotted space in block markets but that the markets were not opening fully.
Parks, not gardens
Rajat Ghosh said there were over 900 flats at Balaka Abasan but that they didn’t have play areas inside. “Where do so many children play?”
While it can be argued that New Town still has lots of empty plots, Patranabish pointed out they are overgrown with grass and parthenium.
“Our township has plenty of picturesque gardens but not everything needs to be that decorated and grand,” said Kallol Das of Utsa Luxury apartments. “Just fence an empty plot and trim the grass inside. Kids will rush in with footballs. Similarly, instead of making one big stadium make several small ones to increase accessibility.”
Traffic
Sammadar wondered about the feasibility of having a tourist spot like Eco Park within a residential area. “The stretch outside it, that usually takes a minute to cover by car, takes an hour and a half to cross in winter thanks to the congestion,” he said, adding that Narkelbagan too could have done with flyovers, “but they cannot be built now as Biswa Bangla Gate has come up”.
Biswajit Das of AA Block said cars speed dangerously in lanes and bylanes and that CCTVs must be installed at entry and exit points of blocks. Many spoke of more police outposts across the township.
Bidyut Prokash Debnath of Greenfield Heights was fed up of trucks spilling mud and materials on the road. “New Town has first class roads but the mud, especially during monsoon, gives it a village-like look. There’s a hospital being built outside our complex and we’ve borne the brunt of this long enough,” he said.
Others spoke of connectivity. “It takes my six-year-old son an hour and a half to return home from his school in Salt Lake,” said Ghosh. “The Balaka bus stop was inaugurated with pomp and ceremony a few years ago but not a single bus leaves from here now. It’s a dumpyard for broken-down buses and a godown of mosquitoes.”
Roads
Some felt the road numbering system was haphazard and others wanted more road signages. “I have been living in CE Block for almost five years but still cannot point to DE Block,” said Aniruddha Sengupta. “One can argue it’s all online but let’s accept that senior citizens — who comprise the majority of the residents — are not tech savvy. There will be accidents if we try to look up our phones on the move.”
Sengupta added that some footpaths were too high to climb and that they need more public toilets and drinking water kiosks. “My octogenarian friends going for walks often have to have medicines but cannot because there is no water around,” he reasoned.
Joint convenor Lutful Alam addresses the gathering. (Saradindu Chaudhury)
Jurisdiction
Residents said they, along with the authorities, were often unsure of their jurisdictions. “No MP or MLA comes to hear our grievances and voting itself is a chore,” said Subhash Ghosh, in whose housing complex, Animikha, there were bizzare cases of husbands getting to vote at nearby booths but wives having to travel several miles away for it.
“We vote under the panchayat system but the panchayat dismisses our complaints saying New Town is not their problem,” says Subhash Ghosh. “NKDA doesn’t accept all complaints either. We need a single point of contact.”
Mixed bag of demands
Residents wanted cremation grounds, hearse, ration shops, dustbins…. Byomkesh felt that senior citizens living by themselves should be identified and monitored by NGOs specialising in the field. “That way they will have someone to turn to in case of medical or law and order emergencies,” he said.
Ghosh spoke of water-logging in Balaka Abasan, Apurba Krishna Mukherjee of DC Block wanted the green verges to be better maintained and trees to be trimmed so they don’t block street lights.
Sammadar said the heavy duty piling of large construction sites was shaking the foundation of their houses and Bandana Chakraborty stressed on the importance of not just building subways at junctions like Biswa Bangla Gate but also installing escalators in them.
Subhash Ghosh felt the post office was inefficient and said hawkers outside Animikha were clogging their drains, urinating on their walls, spitting gutka on their footpaths and inadvertently sending rats through their gates.
