TANMAY MANDAL, Trinamul Congress MLA of Rajarhat-Gopalpur new township, met residents of the area in his office last week to answer their queries. Participants included Partha Sarkar, Narayan Chatterjee, Dayal Banerjee, Gautam Majumder and Babloo Chakraborty

Babloo Chakraborty: You are on the committee of the Rajarhat New Township project. Why are plots being sold at varying rates?

Allow me first to tell you that I am against the project. The state government, in most cases, took away farming land from the peasants. When the project was conceived, it was to be a mega city, with both Central and state government funding. It was also decided at that point of time that only land unfit for farming will be taken from owners, for a price. What occurred is totally different. The state government took away land that produced three to four crops a year and forcibly turned the farmers out of their property, after paying them a nominal amount. Though housing minister Goutam Deb claims the farmers had handed over the plots on their own, the fact is that they were cheated. Land prices here are in the range of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per cottah. The state government paid only Rs 22,000 and took away the land by force, with help from their cadre and police. Surprisingly, the same plots are being sold at exorbitant rates. The government is making good money out of it. That is why the land rates differ, but I can do nothing about it.

Babloo Chakraborty: The Circular Railway was to be extended to these parts.

Both the Circular Railway and the Metro Railway are due to touch Rajarhat. The plan had been suggested by Mamata Banerjee as railway minister and then supported by Nitish Kumar. As far as I know, work will start soon.

Babloo Chakraborty: There is no proper terminus for the private bus on route 44.

I have already spoken to the authorities and suggested a change of route, via the Bagjola canal. The bus-owners will benefit by this extension of the route, which will also minimise traffic congestion in the area. A proper terminal will be set up at Gabtala for buses on the route.

Babloo Chakraborty: We need a government bus on this route.

I assure you that a service will start soon. Detailed planning has been carried out and the route is being finalised. We have two buses plying between Rajarhat and Shyambazar, but no route to the city centre.

Babloo Chakraborty: Whatever happened to the community centre and the sports complex that we were promised?

I have no knowledge about the community hall but the sports complex was to have been built on Nazrul Maidan, where a police barrack will also come up. I don’t know much about it. Some sport is played on the Maidan in Narayantala, though the field, inaugurated two years ago, has yet to be developed into a full-fledged games park. You see, the local municipality is run by the CPM and it does not keep me posted about a lot of things.

Dayal Banerjee: The roads are in a pitiable condition.

Three roads have been relaid — the stretch between Baguiati Jora Mandir to the Rajarhat four-point crossing, VIP Road from Kaikhali to Lauhati and the stretch between Hatiara and Baguiati. Patch-up repairs have been carried out on stretches of some other roads in a bad shape. All this has been done with the Rs 25 lakh I got for my MLA’s fund. I have asked for money to restore a few other roads.

Narayan Chatterjee : Areas like Prafullakanan, Hatiara and Jyangra get easily flooded.

The main reason is the mushrooming of multistoreys. Many of them are illegal, developed by CPM cadre-turned-promoters. At the same time, the drainage outlets and ditches along VIP Road are clogged. Naturally, during a downpour, the water that accumulates in this area cannot drain out. Another major blunder has been the setting up of a township in the lower Bagjola basin, into which water from adjoining areas, like Bangur Avenue, Lake Town and Dum Dum, flows. The Bagjola canal itself is not wide enough to drain out the water.

(Concluded)