Kolkata. Oct 12 — Around 5,000 water bodies in and around Kolkata were illegally filled up for real estate promotion during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal, claimed Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday.
He made this allegation while speaking at a function organised by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Monday and accused a section of the Trinamool Congress councillors of the now dismantled KMC board of being behind this menace.
“These councillors were square feet councillors. They were responsible for illegally filling up around 5,000 water bodies in several pockets under the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority from Joka and Haridebpur in the southern outskirts of Kolkata to Barasat, and Madhyamgram on the northern outskirts of the city during the previous regime. These square feet councillors have done everything that needed to be done to destroy the environment of Kolkata,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister was in praise of Agnimitra Paul, the state municipal affairs & urban development minister and fashion-designer-turned politician. “She is very active. Just as she works from her office, she also hits the streets for field inspections. The people who have done nothing troll her on social media. I have advised her to totally ignore them,” the Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, in another back-to-back program, where the Chief Minister handed over appointment letters to 12,000 police constables both in West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police, the Chief Minister said that there will be 9,000 additional recruitments in the police department soon.
“The police-to-public ratio in Uttar Pradesh is 200 cops for every one lakh of population. I promise that soon West Bengal will surpass Uttar Pradesh both in terms of police personnel and the police-to-public ratio,” the Chief Minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, he claimed that during the previous regime the police stations in the state were civic-volunteer centric. “I do not blame the civic volunteers. They were recruited by the previous administration without following the basic recruitment procedure and without checking their eligibility. No training was arranged for them. They were also exploited,” he said.
On handing over the appointment letters to 12,000 police constables, CM Adhikari said that these recruitments in the police department were stuck midway because of the flawed Other Backwards Classes (OBC) policy of the previous ruling dispensation.
“Now we have corrected those flaws, cleared the appointment process, and appointment letters have been handed over to the successful candidates. More will be done in the coming days,” the Chief Minister said.