The SMC meeting in progress. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Nov. 29: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation today passed a proposal at its monthly board meeting to set up a new hospital in town.

This was the first meeting after four months in which Opposition members made an appearance.

“It has been resolved that we will ask the government to set up a full-fledged hospital in Siliguri,” mayor Bikash Ghosh said.

Ghosh later told reporters that he and deputy mayor Nurul Islam met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee yesterday with another proposal to set up two degree colleges, one in Dabgram and the other at Naxalbari. “Given the huge number of students migrating from other places, the pressure on Siliguri colleges is particularly high. The government is in the midst of a statewide survey to assess the need for new educational institutions. We have placed our proposal before the chief minister and we have a strong feeling that it will come through,” he added.

Reportedly, today’s meeting was preceded by an informal discussion between the mayor and Opposition members, who had boycotted four board meetings in a row to protest against alleged “high-handedness” of chairman Dilip Singh. “We were waiting for an assurance of some kind and having got that today, we attended the meeting. We could not take part in the proceedings, though, since we were not prepared,” Opposition leader Krishna Paul said.

An integrated slum development project, funded by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, was also approved at today’s meeting. “A total of Rs 36.42 crore has been sanctioned for the development of 21 slums in five wards of the corporation,” Ghosh said.

Work on the remaining 154 slums will be taken up in the second phase.