June 27: Five municipalities in north Bengal go to the polls on Sunday and by all indications, issues that supposedly swayed the votes against the Left during the panchayat polls, like Singur and Nandigram, are unlikely to have any impact on voting trends this time.

After talking to a cross-section of voters in the civic areas, it seems that a lack of development in infrastructure is foremost on the minds of the electorate. “North Bengal towns lack several civic amenities and we are still waiting for overall improvements to be made on the lines of larger municipalities,” said Rumki Saha of Balurghat.

In North Dinajpur’s Dalkhola (see chart) for instance, two wards of the fledgling municipality, formed in 2003, are yet to get power connection. “There is no filtered water supply in Dalkhola, and during the monsoon, we suffer from water-borne diseases. There is no bus terminus and traffic congestion is unending during rush hours,” said Durga Prasad Jain, a local businessman.

Himadri Mukherjee, the CPM chairman of the municipality, however, is still hopeful of retaining his seat. “During our maiden term (this is the second election of the civic body), we have done whatever we could for Dalkhola with our limited resources. And we expect the people to vote us back to power so that we can do more,” said Mukherjee.

Residents of two small municipal towns of Mekhliganj and Haldibari in Cooch Behar district, both located close to the border with Bangladesh, complain of a total absence of civic amenities. “We are too small to generate revenue by ourselves and are heavily dependent on government funding,” said Rathis Dasgupta, a CPM leader in Haldibari. But he promises that if the Left Front wins, it will do more work than the previous board. “The Congress-led board failed to utilise central and state funds for development,” Dasgupta added.

In Alipurduar, the location of a solid waste disposal ground is the main issue in the elections. “We are sorry to say that the politicians have shown no will to solve this problem,” said Krishna Dey, a housewife.

Leader of the opposition of the Alipurduar Municipality, Anuj Kanti Mitra of the CPM, said if the Left Front is voted to power, the first priority will be to utilise the Rs 5 crore that has been earmarked for solid waste management.

However, Biswaranjan Sarkar, the Jalpaiguri district Congress president, blamed the Left Front for stalling bids to solve the solid waste management problem. “The RSP MLA, Nirmal Das, has been constantly opposing the site of the dumping ground which we had identified along the Majherdabri tea garden. Das has been alleging that local residents will be affected by the pollution, but that is not possible for no one stays within a 1km radius,” Sarkar said.

The RSP-led board of the Balurghat Municipality appeared confident about remaining in power. “We have done a satellite mapping of the town in order to develop amenities better. Once we come back, we will develop the waterbodies in town,” said Sucheta Biswas, the outgoing chairman of the board.