project-stopper polls

Place: Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, near Khanna crossing Project: Dredging of silt from old underground sewer lines to lay glass reinforced plastic pipes inside the brick sewers Deadline: May 2010 Unlikely before: January 2011

Place: Radhanath Chowdhury Road, Topsia Project: Underground sewer lines under the Calcutta Environmental Improvement Project. The entire length of road has open drains Deadline: Was supposed to be over by February but civic elections and the monsoon are set to delay it by several months Unlikely before: Early 2011

Place: Sridhar Roy Road, Picnic Garden Project: Underground sewer lines along stretches with open drains Deadline: Phase I of the project was originally supposed to be completed by December 2010 Unlikely before: Early 2011

Place: Bentinck Street Project: Milling to lower the level of the road, which presently causes rainwater to seep into buildings Deadline: May 25, 2010 Unlikely before: Second week of June

If work on the sewer or the road running in front of your house has suddenly come to a standstill, blame it on the city’s civic bosses-in-waiting who are calling the shots even before they take charge.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation has slowed down or slammed the brakes on a slew of civic projects in town at the behest of candidates who wouldn’t like their wards to wear a “dug-up look” on poll-eve.

“In some wards, our workers have had to hurriedly fill up portions of roads that were dug up to be relaid, making those patches look even worse. But who can make political leaders see reason?” rued a CMC engineer.

The Election Commission’s model code of conduct isn’t an excuse either because parties are only barred from announcing any new scheme once polls are notified. “The law does not debar anyone from continuing work on an ongoing project,” said a former official of the Election Commission.

Civic officials warned that pressing the pause button on any ongoing project would mean delaying it by nearly six months because it would be almost monsoon time when the election process ends.

“April-May is the peak season for work as there are usually no weather disturbances. But we have had to keep some projects on hold or go slow just because all political parties seem to be unanimous on this,” the engineer said.

Although no party would admit to a role in the stop-work-till-poll notices, most schemes under the Calcutta Environmental Improvement Project (CEIP) in wards 56 to 59 at Tangra-Topsia and 133 to 139 at Garden Reach have been stalled. “We have received informal requests from all parties to put the remaining work on hold and clear these roads at the earliest,” an official said.

A CMC project to remove silt from the old brick-sewer line along APC Road and Rabindra Sarani to prevent waterlogging during the monsoon has also been put on hold. “We need to block the flow of sewer water at a particular point to remove the silt on the other side. We have been asked not to do that till the elections are over,” said a senior CMC official.

Road alignment on Bentinck Street, RN Mukherjee Road and Vivekananda Road has been stopped midway. “Every year we need to keep work on hold during Puja and the examination season from February to March. The civic poll has robbed us of more months,” said an official.

The CEIP’s extended deadline for completion of the ongoing schemes is 2011. Work on the first phase was supposed to be over by 2010.

So are stop-work-for-poll notices a new political trend?

Sources said such requests on election-eve were not unusual, though the reasons could differ. “Requests came in before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as well but this civic poll marks a high in terms of numbers,” said a CEIP official.

Trinamul Congress leader Subrata Bakshi admitted that no councillor would want dug-up roads in his ward before elections but denied any such requests going to the CMC or the CEIP from his party. “This is the first time that I am hearing about existing projects being delayed because of stop-work requests from councillors. These are all baseless allegations,” he claimed.

Senior CPM leader Sudhangshu Sil insisted that the Left Front would never stop a project that was being implemented. “We will ensure that no project is stalled,” he said.

But a councillor from Topsia admitted having “sent a request” to the CMC to clear a road in his ward of construction material. “It’s a temporary measure. After the elections are over, work will resume,” he added.