Mayor Gautam Deb has a new year resolution.
“In the new year, I will visit every locality in each of the 47 municipal wards of Siliguri. I will walk to peoples’ doorsteps to know their problems and suggestions. Through this exercise, I believe, I would be able to reach out to more and more people and can promptly redress the issues within my purview,” Deb said here on Saturday.
The visit, named “Manusher Kache Cholo (reach out to people)”, will be launched in January, said sources.
Mayor Deb holds weekly interactions with city residents over the phone.
“The Talk to the Mayor session is popular. Now, the mayor wants to talk to residents more extensively and hence wants to visit them,” said a source in Siliguri Municipal Corporation.
The exercise, Trinamul insiders said, will help the civic board and Trinamul.
The mayor and councillors can have a better understanding of ward-level problems. People’s response can also help the party assess its support ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Presently, Deb and his colleagues in the SMC are facing the challenge to supply uninterrupted drinking water amid problems at the intake well of the water treatment plant. “We are building a second intake well in Fulbari. Talks are on for funds for Siliguri’s mega drinking water project,” said a senior Trinamul councillor.