There?s a wind of change blowing in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. A Telegraph picture

Under pressure from the department for international development (DFID) and the state government, the mayor is inducting experts into the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) to deliver better civic services.

The British government arm has granted Rs 220 crore to the civic body for executing a capacity-building programme to turn the CMC into a smarter and more efficient organisation.

By inducting experts, the civic authorities hope to tone up the delivery system. Improvement in the civic body?s interface with the public is also being attempted through expert help.

The primary objective is to use modern technology to iron out errors in documentation relating to property, death, birth and tax. Human resources personnel are also being trained to provide better service.

Following a talk with the chief minister, mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya directed municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay to start the induction process and decentralise financial power.

Since last week, five experts have been collaborating with the CMC on an honorary basis.

They are former director of National Informatics Centre Subir Roy (overseeing e-governance, on which the CMC is spending Rs 100 crore), former surveyor-general of India and director of National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation Prithwish Nag (monitoring the update and digitisation of 80-year-old Smart?s Map), former joint director land records and survey R.N. Gangopadhyay (helping in the use of geographical information system), former vice-chairman of Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners Sadhan Banerjee (honorary chairman of the CMC works committee, monitoring technological and economic feasibility of civil engineering projects) and artist Ramananda Bandopadhyay (overseeing heritage matters).

?Expert help is essential as the orientation of civic affairs, in every respect ? taxation, delivery of utility services and administration ? will be totally changed in the next few years, with the largest-ever investment in the CMC?s history,? said the mayor.

According to civic commissioner Bandyopadhyay, transparency in a decentralised administration is largely dependent on the existence of a third-party audit system, and that?s the reason experts are being inducted into the CMC.

?The heritage of a city is not so simple a matter that it can be adequately looked after by a civil engineer. Similarly, a bureaucrat cannot look after e-governance,? explained Bandyopadhyay.

Changes are also being made in the handling of finance. In a circular last week, the municipal commissioner delegated financial power borough-level upward to cut undue delay.

The circular has enhanced the mayor?s financial power from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. The financial powers of the mayoral council has been raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore.

Borough executive engineers have been given financial power up to Rs 50,000, while the chief engineers and the deputy chief engineers have been given financial power to a limit of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively.

The financial power of the chief engineers and the deputy chief engineers were taken away by former mayor Subrata Mukherjee.