The former councillors and chairperson of boroughs in Kolkata have been made coordinators of their respective wards and boroughs to fight the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. The decision was taken by newly appointed administrator of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Firhad Hakim on Friday at the first meeting of KMC’s administrative board.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday ruled that the administrative board of KMC under former Mayor Firhad Hakim can continue as “caretaker board” for a month so that the municipal body can continue providing emergency services to people at this time of COVID-19 crisis. The same ruling applies to all 93 municipal bodies whose tenure was over on May 6 and no elections could be held due to the COVID-19 situation.
A 14-member administrative board was formed under former Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim to carry on the functioning of KMC as the tenure of its elected board expired this week. The newly ward and borough coordinators will ensure that emergency services are provided to people in their respective areas at this time of the COVID-19 crisis. Hakim appointed four supervisors to oversee the performances of ward coordinators.
Atin Ghosh and Debashis Kumar will be in charge of north and south Kolkata respectively. Shamsuzzaman Ansari will be in charge of the Garden Reach area and Avijit Mukherjee will supervise the Behala region.
A special committee has been formed to fight COVID-19 in Kolkata. The committee comprises of Hakim, Debasish Kumar, Atin Ghosh, two special commissioners, KMC’s chief health officer and another health official. The committee will focus especially on boroughs one to nine and borough 15, as these areas have reported around 80 per cent COVID-19 cases in Kolkata.
Hakim said that those who were in charge of various departments at KMC, will continue with the work they were doing earlier.
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