ALAPAN BANDYOPADHYAY, municipal commissioner of Calcutta, met readers of The Telegraph in his office on Friday to answer their queries. Participants included Anil Bavishi, Sivabrata Chatterjee, Diptimoy Ghosh, Mehboob Kader, Md. Aamiruzzaman, Md. Shamim, Subhadyuti Datta, Sushmita Roy, Divya Mishra, Om Prakash Jaiswal, Neha Agarwal and Talat Shalauddin

Sushmita Roy: Thank you for the decision to discontinue with the cruel and primitive method of catching stray dogs with tongs.But no order has yet been issued to the CMC dog squad on the use of a lasso. Can you issue the necessary order?

Like everybody else, we, too, are against any unnecessarily painful method of catching stray dogs. I will talk to my officers about this.

Md. Aamiruzzaman: Why has the CMC stopped taking punitive action against property tax defaulters?

I don?t know what you mean by punitive action. I think a civic body should be a civil body. Our drive to realise outstanding property tax is still on and that is why our revenue collection this year has gone up by 10 per cent.

Divya Mishra: How will the CMC fund the setting up of a unit to produce power from garbage?

It will come up as a joint-venture project with private parties. The methane and compost manure to be produced from the garbage has a ready market. The CMC will give the private party land and an assured supply of raw material ? which here is garbage. The consultant we are engaging will judge the technology and the offer best suited for us.

Mehboob Kader: What?s your action plan for the wetlands and the waterbodies?

Wetlands and waterbodies are two different subjects. The East Calcutta Wetlands have been recognised as an international site of ecological importance under the Ramsar convention of 2002. The state government has set up an East Calcutta Wetlands Management Authority. Recently, there has been an enactment preserving and protecting 12,500 hectares of the wetlands area. Since the CMC is not the custodian of the wetlands, its duty is to abide by the guidelines of the wetlands management authority.

However, in the case of waterbodies, we have already taken serious steps against landfill attempts by promoters across the city. In some cases, the CMC has even restored waterbodies to their original state.

Subhadyuti Datta: What about the CMC grievance cell, that was to be in operation from August 15, 2005?

The UK government?s department for international development (DFID), under its capacity-building programmme, is insisting on a grievance cell on the ground floor of the civic headquarters. But I think it will not be proper to introduce a grievance cell of cosmetic nature.

In a multi-tier body like the CMC, a grievance cell needs elaborate back-up support. Matters relating to property tax, assessment, collection and so on cannot be dealt with by a grievance cell unless its activities are properly defined.

We have not discarded the idea but we have decided to think about it after the introduction of a helpline, e-governance and public charter.

Md. Aamiruzzaman: Property revaluation or general revaluation carried out by the civic assessment department every six years lacks transparency. Also, we face inordinate delay in getting a property mutated. Why?

I don?t think mutation is as protracted as you are making out. Reconciliation of records is involved in granting a mutation and often, available records themselves act as deterrent in clearing an application. In clean cases, where the records are clear, mutation does not take much time.

Divya Mishra: The ranks of pavement-dwellers is up.

Pavements are not dwelling places.The eviction drive was suspended for a few months due to the election.

Concluded