Tarak Singh, a member of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s mayoral council, resigned on Tuesday, claiming he had been left with little work despite the monsoon season being around the corner.

Singh, who headed KMC’s sewerage and drainage department, said people would hold him responsible if there were waterlogging.

Singh, an old hand of Trinamool, also accused the party’s leadership of not standing by party workers in this time of crisis.

“I am feeling bad that I am unable to work while the monsoon is so close,” Singh said.

“I requested the mayor for a monsoon (preparedness) meeting. He said he will have a word with the commissioner, but did not tell me anything afterwards,” Singh said.

“No mayoral council meeting was held, but the mayor never met us and discussed what could be done,” he said.

Mayor Firhad Hakim told Metro that he had spoken with KMC commissioner Smita Pandey about Singh’s request for a meeting.

“I told Tarak da that I have spoken with the commissioner, but she is keeping very busy,” Hakim said.

A mayoral council meeting was called off on May 18 after the KMC commissioner, who convenes the meeting, cited unavailability. Sources said Pandey had to attend a meeting chaired by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari that day.

Later, the monthly councillors’ meeting scheduled for May 22 was cancelled a day earlier.

“I called the KMC commissioner myself. I told her that you and I are both residents of Calcutta. Please convene the monsoon (preparedness) meeting. I did not get any response. I expected a decision from the party or commissioner, but nothing happened,” Singh, a councillor of Ward 118, said.

Commissioner Pandey told Metro she had a word with Singh on Tuesday. “We spoke, and we will soon convene a monsoon preparedness meeting,” she said.

Singh said he felt guilty about drawing a salary from the public exchequer while being unable to discharge his responsibilities effectively.

“As a mayoral council member, I receive 8 litres of petrol a day. The government pays for my driver and car. I come to KMC and go back, but there is no output. This has hurt my self-esteem,” he said.

“We should have resigned. We are not doing that,” Singh said, adding that he was in favour of the Trinamool-run board of KMC resigning.

The party did not stand by its workers after the polls, he alleged. “None from the party asked me how I was. We have 80 MLAs and 42 MPs,” he told news channel ABP Ananda.

Singh’s resignation is not the first instance of a Trinamool councillor at the KMC stepping down from a position held within the civic body.

Arup Chakraborty (ward 98) had earlier quit the municipal accounts committee, while Sushanta Ghosh (ward 108), who was also the chairperson of borough XII, put in his paper as the borough chairperson.

Councillor and chairperson of borough IX, Debalina Biswas (ward 74), also put in her paper as the borough chairperson.

Sandipan Saha, the councillor of Ward 58, a member of the mayoral council and the MLA from Entally, was expelled from the party after he, along with fellow MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, alleged that the signatures of MLAs had been forged on a resolution sent to the Speaker for the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.