Get your building plan sanctioned online
KOLKATA: It may take only a week to sanction building plans for middle-class homes, if Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has its way. After being pulled up by the chief minister over pending applications, the civic body is planning to introduce a single window system for plan clearance of small residential units.
While an online system for tracking the status of building plans is already in place, submission of applications will soon become an online process once the plan is duly signed by an authorized architect.
Building plans for middleclass homes in the city could soon be sanctioned in a week with Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) planning to introduce a single window for such clearances at the prodding of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The CM is learnt to have pulled up KMC authorities over applications for plan sanctions piling up with it. Not only that. Under instructions from the CM to curb corruption in sanctioning of building plans for the middleclass, the civic top brass have planned to open an ‘online’ service for sanctioning of the plans once an applicant submits the plans duly signed by a KMC authorized architect.
“The online sanction of building plans is an ambitious project for the KMC building department. Initially, we may start this scheme for small dwelling units. Sanctioning of plans for the highrises is a complicated matter and may take time,” said a senior KMC official. However, before introducing the online system, KMC will now allow the applicants (who have already applied)
to go through the exact status of their building plans online. “We are offering this facility to the applicants and the required system is already in place,” said a KMC building department official.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has appointed Anindya Karforma, KMC’s chief architect and town planner, as the new director general (buildings) to speed up sanction of building plans. Karforma took charges on March 2 and convened a meeting of all executive engineers the very next day and directed them to clear all applications for plan sanctions in case of small dwellings.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has appointed a new director general (buildings) to speed up building plan sanctions. Anindya Karforma, KMC’s chief architect and town planner assumed charge as DG (Buildings) on March 2, replacing Debasis Kar. Karforma convened a meeting of all executive engineers in the building department the very next day and directed them to clear all applications for plan sanctions in case of small dwellings.
“We have been asked to expedite the process of clearing files for small dwellings,” said a KMC building department official. “As a possible solution to this problem, the owner of the land has to come to the KMC building department and pursue the case. Otherwise, the sanction could be delayed since registered architects seldom approach us to solve the problem. We may have to suggest some changes in the plan which the architects have to pass on to the owner,” he added.
This is not all. The civic authorities are planning to open a single window system for sanctioning plans for middle-class homes.
“We are planning to introduce a single window system for those who approach us for sanctioning plans for small residential units. If the applicants can produce clean papers relating to land deed and a proper building plan duly signed by an architect registered with KMC, we may take a week to sanction the application so that construction can start without delay,” said a KMC building department official. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said that all efforts would be made to ensure hassle-free sanction of building plans for the middleclass so that they are spared a long wait to get the clearance.
Sources in the KMC building department said hundreds of applications for building plan sanctions were lying with it for the last couple of years. are lying with the department for a couple of years.
The member, mayor-in-council, Tarak Singh admitted that files were piling up. conceded that plenty of these files had been lying with a group of officials for months together.
“We have to relieve citizens from such harassment. Senior civic officials need to clear these files at regular intervals,” Singh said.
Files on proposals for demolition of unauthorized buildings are also gathering dust. have also been piling up for years.
“More than a hundred such files have remained locked up in the KMC building department for the past three years. Now, we have been asked to clear those files on a war-footing,” said a senior KMC building department official. The demolition proposals are for buildings in B.T Road, Dum Dum, Cossipore, Beadon Street, Park Circus, Topsia, Behala, Jadavpur, Tollygunge and Garden Reach.
Tax defaulters queue up to pay dues
KOLKATA: Property tax defaulters have started queuing up at Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) offices after the civic body sent senior officials to their houses a week after the third partial interest waiver on outstanding Property tax scheme expired on February 1.
In the past week, senior KMC assessment department officials up to the rank of assessor-collectors have already visited house owners owing the civic body Rs 5 lakh or more.
This has yielded results, claimed KMC’s Debabrata Majumder, member, mayor-in-council (assessment). Sources in the KMC revenue department said on Wednesday that the civic body had collected Rs 30 crore till date from the waiver scheme. The waiver scheme came into effect for the third time from February1, this year.
“This appears to be an encouraging trend. After sending inspectors and senior officials to the defaulters’ houses, nearly 60 major defaulters owing the civic body Rs 5 lakh or more have paid up,” Majumder said.
Municipal commissioner Arnab Roy has asked senior civic officials to keep a tab on the major defaulters who owe the civic body Rs 1 crore or more. “Till date only two defaulters owing the civic body Rs 1 crore or more have paid their dues. However, around 650 defaulters in the range of Rs 1 lakh have already paid,” Roy said.
The MMiC felt habitual defaulters need to come forward and avail of the waiver offer. “It’s good enough if they come forward on their own. If they fail to pay up, we will take stern steps against them,” Majumder said.
“We have prepared a list of major defaulters who are yet to pay the principal amount without paying the interest. We will paste posters on the walls of these properties and ask them to pay. If they fail to pay by the April 30 deadline for the waiver scheme, we will raid the properties of the major property tax defaulters and may eventually attach their properties,” Majumder said on Thursday.
The urge to teach habitual defaulters a lesson stems from all too glaring statistics that of 3.5 lakh assesses, 301 defaulters alone owe KMC Rs 900 crore of the Rs 2,600 crore outstanding property tax. The KMC assessment record book shows that a majority of tax defaulters in Kolkata wait for waivers to dodge interests on the principal sum they owe. Records show that the civic body mopped up Rs 157 crore from the 2001 waiver scheme. When the waiver offer was repeated in 2004, the KMC collected around Rs 250 crore as many more major defaulters who had been silent during the first waiver applied for the second.
The KMC had an uphill task convincing the state government and governor M K Narayanan to approve this third waiver scheme.
State finance department officials suggested that not more than 50% interest on outstanding property tax should be waived.
However, after a series of discussions with state municipal affairs department and the KMC top brass, it was decided that the civic body could waive up to 95 % interest on outstanding sums less than Rs 1 lakh.
For defaulters owing between Rs 1 lakh to 5 lakh, KMC offered 75% waiver on interest while major defaulters with outstanding sums exceeding Rs 1 crore will get a 50% waiver on accumulated interest.
Papers sought on derecognition of police bodies
KOLKATA: Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed the state government to produce all relevant papers on derecognition of West Bengal Police organizations for establishing a Police Welfare Board. Justice Jayanta Biswas also issued an interim order restraining the government from evicting organizations from their respective offices till February 9 when the court will hear the case.
Two writ petitions were filed in the court challenging the state government’s decision to derecognize police organizations for establishing a police welfare board.
One of the petitions was filed by Pashim Banga Non-Gazetted Police Karmachari Samiti and the other by West Bengal Police Association.
While moving the first petition, former Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, Arunavo Ghosh and Syad Chadan Hossain, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the home (police) department had issued a notice on January 10 stating that recognition of police organizations had been withdrawn for setting up a police welfare board.
According to the petitioner, the notice violates fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution as it prohibits the right to free speech and expression and freedom of association.
It was also argued that the organizations were recognized by the governor in 1969 and the new Trinamul Congress-led government suddenly withdrew recognition to the organizations without even hearing them out.
Moving the other petition by the police association, Malay Basu, Somnath Bose and Bhaskar Bannerjee argued that on January 17, the department issued an order to evict the organizations from their respective offices which, too, was done without a hearing. Faruk M. Razzak, the additional solicitor general who appeared for the central government, sought time to receive instructions on the matter. The counsel for the state also sought time as the state government pleader Ashok Banerjee will appear in the case. The state counsel said that Banerjee was not prepared on Tuesday.
After hearing submissions from different counsel, Jusice Biswas adjourned the case till February 9 and passed a directive to produce all papers on the issue of de-recognition. The court also restrained the government from evicting the organizations from their respective offices.
The Non-Gazetted Samiti has its office at Shibpur, Howrah while the police association office is in Bhowanipore.
Councillor aides held for pension fraud
KOLKATA: Police have arrested two persons – allegedly close aides of Ward No. 6 Congress councilor Suman Singh – for withdrawing the pension amount of an elderly woman, a resident of Kripananda Dutta Lane, for about eight years now.
Under the National Old Age Pension Scheme, citizens above 65 years and below the poverty line are entitled to receive an amount of Rs 400 per month. This victim from Chitpur was also enlisted as a beneficiary for the scheme. But she has not been receiving her pension amount for last eight years. The family found the amount has been withdrawn each time by some ghost receivers.
“The victim’s son, Raj Kumar Khatik, lodged a complaint with the Chitpur police on April 21, 2010,” said joint CP (headquarters) Jawed Shamim.
Accordingly, police initiated a probe and arrested Dilip Singh (25) and Sarat Sarkar (38), the later is a casual labourer with Kolkata Municipal Corporation and used to work for Suman Singh.
The two allegedly have been withdrawing the amount with a certificate from the councillor. Singh was subsequently summoned by the municipal vigilant authority on this issue.
When contacted, Suman Singh said, “Police arrested the two. The law will take its own course.”
Stumbling Block Across City
KOLKATA: If you are among the millions who walk to work in Kolkata, you would be cursing mayor Sovan Chatterjee’s pavement beautification drive for your sprained ankles, scraped knees and the messed up city. In spite of the crores spent on the project, Kolkata looks like a city in ruins, south to north.
It’s painfully clear that Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s much hyped pretty pavement programme has backfired. The mayor had announced a month ago that the civic body would spend crores to beautify the footpaths along some of the major thoroughfares. In reality, pavements have been dug across the city, especially in prime locations of central Kolkata, and left that way, causing much hardship to pedestrians.
KMC has spent more than Rs100 crore on pavement beautification across the city in the past six years, but you wouldn’t believe it if you were stumbling from one pile of debris to another.
Pedestrians allege that accidents have been occurring frequently in the past fortnight due to the dug-up pavements. Keya Biswas, an employee of a multi-national, narrowly escaped being run over a few days ago on Shakespeare Sarani, one of the prime locations of the city. The pavement in front of her office has been dug up and left that way for the past 10 days, forcing her and other pedestrians to the road. “I had almost reached my office when I was hit by a taxi. I somehow escaped with my life but it could have been fatal. I wouldn’t have been in that situation if the pavement had not been dug up,” she said.
Santanu Ghosh, an employee of a central government organization, is frustrated with the way he has to stumble about the pavement to reach his office on Jawaharlal Nehru Road. For over a fortnight, the footpaths in this posh area have been dug up and the debris dumped all over the place. “When will this torture end? Every now and then, the KMC has been digging up the pavement only to relay it and dig it up again. I fail to understand what is the purpose of such a beautification? We face regular troubles when walking on pavements. Besides, it is a sheer waste of public money,” Ghosh said.
Large chunks of pavements along other major thoroughfares such as AJC Bose Road, Bowbazar Street, and SN Banerjee Road are also in a terrible shape. A pedestrian was heard remarking on SN Banerjee Road that it could be used for hiking and mountaineering lessons. The entire pavement is missing in parts of this key road that leads to Sealdah. The tiles have been left scattered here and there, forcing people to do a balancing act every few metres.
Sheikh Munna, a hawker who sells leather ware at the intersection of JL Nehru Road and SN Banerjee Road, said that he has seen a number of mishaps because of the dug-up pavement. Rumita De, who comes to Chowringhee feels that pavements in city’s central business district were going from bad to worse.
“I don’t need a beautification of a pavement if it remains dug up for the better part of the year. It is definitely wasteful expenditure,” De said. “Give us a flat surface to walk on. We don’t want pretty tiles,” fumed a businessman on the way to his shop.
On Cathedral Road, a notice board proudly announces ‘Landscaping and beautification work under KMC’. Right below it is a huge mound of mud and debris. Some parts on Shakespeare Sarani are simply impassable.
Faiyaz Khan, the former mayor-in-council member (roads), felt that it was a weak supervision on the part of the civic officials tat led to “utter failure of the pavement beautification programe”. “Merely spending crores of money on beautification will not solve the problems. We need to prioritize pavements that need to be upgraded so that we can concentrate on strengthening the weaker pavements. But, if funds are spent on beautifying the same pavements repeatedly, it is of no use,” Khan said.
Though more than a 100 crore has already been spent on pavement beautification, the KMC authorities have decided to undertake another such drive across the city. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has asked the civic officials to beautify pavements on CIT Road (Phoolbagan), Beliaghata Main Road, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Lenin Sarani, SN Banerjee Road and Cathedral Road among a host of other major thoroughfares. “We have to spend Rs 10 crore in the next month to undertake such a pavement beautification drive in the designated spots. We have been asked to wind up the work by February-end,” said a KMC official.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, however, felt that the dug-up pavements were a “temporary problem” and that the civic body would take care of each and every pavement in the city. “We need some more time for the beautification project to be complete. I have asked civic officials to work in a time-bound manner. Once it is over, this beautification programme will add glory to the city,” Chatterjee said.
Mamata shakes up KMC, mayor downsized
KOLKATA: After the reshuffle at Writers’ Buildings, a surprise restructuring at Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Prodded by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, mayor Sovan Chatterjee has given up three key departments, including the prized one of revenue assessment and collection.
Chatterjee has set a precedent of sorts because the revenue department has always been with the mayor. But the fact that this unique show of “collective responsibility” was done under the instructions of Mamata has set the rumour mills agog at the KMC headquarters.
Interestingly, the announcement about the KMC reshuffle was made at Writers’ Buildings, not the civic HQ. “It is just like a Cabinet reshuffle. Three departments that were with the mayor will now be looked after by three of his mayor-incouncil colleagues. This has been done to bring in more efficiency and speed in work. The mayor will have overall supervision of all the departments,” urban development minister Firhad Hakim said on Tuesday.
The mayor later said that the decision was taken after he had a talk with the chief minister. He emphasized the “collective responsibility” of the mayoral council, which he heads, though the move is being perceived as an indication of trust deficit on the mayor from Mamata, who lovingly calls him by his nickname (Kanan) even in public programmes.
The biggest surprise is the mayor losing assessment-collection department for the first time in KMC’s history. His predecessors Bikash Bhattacharya, Subrata Mukherjee and Kamal Basu had personally managed this department, as did the mayors before them. “It is like the chief minister parting with the home (political) department,” a KMC employee said. It is the key to the corporation’s functioning.
Majumdar will preside over the switch to the unit area tax method – perhaps the biggest administrative step in KMC’s recent history. Then, there are the added responsibilities, like riverfront beautification. Majumdar, thus, has his task cut out. He has to somehow mop up money while ensuring it doesn’t pinch citizen’s pockets and keep Mamata happy.
Tax waiver soon for Salt Lake residents
KOLKATA: If you are a resident of Salt Lake and cursing your municipality for not waiving property tax like the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) did for city dwellers, breathe easy. The Trinamool Congress government has finally decided to introduce a tax waiver scheme for Bidhannagar Municipality. State urban development minister Firhad Hakim on Tuesday said the government was working on the process of implementing the waiver scheme.
“Similar to the KMC, we are working on the process of implementing the tax waiver scheme for Bidhannagar Municipality,” Hakim said at Writers’ Buildings on Tuesday.
The Trinamool-led Bidhannagar Municipality had long been mulling introduction of a tax waiver scheme for the residents of the township. Ever since Supreme Court had scrapped the municipality’s property tax structure in 2007, declaring it as arbitrary, the civic body has been suffering a severe fund crunch. It could not collect property tax that is a major source of revenue generation. The previous Left-run civic body had set a target to collect an annual property tax of Rs 12 crore after preparing a new tax structure.
Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krisna Chakraborty said the civic body is ready to collect property tax once the waiver scheme gets introduced. “We are ready. Introduction of the tax waiver scheme will benefit us,” she said.
Civic officials said the residents of the township will be benefitted with the introduction of the waiver as most have not paid tax since 2007, following the Court verdict. Till now, tax arrears run into crores. With the introduction of the scheme, most of the residents will likely be required to clear the principal due.
However, the Bidhannagar Welfare Association that has been continuously fighting on this disputed property tax issue, wanted to know about what the government was exactly planning on. “We have not been informed as to what amount of tax the residents have to pay, so where does the question of having a tax waiver scheme comes from?” association general secretary Kumar Shankar Sadhu said.
The civic body had also decided to make fresh assessments of tax and was to send self-assessment forms to the residents. The welfare association had been repeatedly saying that the civic body had no bar in collecting tax following the old tax structure.There is finally some good news for the residents of Salt Lake. The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to introduce a tax waiver scheme for the Bidhannagar municipality.
State urban development minister Firhad Hakim said that the government was working on the process to implement the waiver scheme soon. “Similar to KMC, we are working on the process to implement the tax waiver scheme for Bidhannagar municipality,” Hakim said at Writers Buildings on Tuesday.
The Trinamool led Bidhannagar municipality had been mulling on to introduce a tax waiver scheme for the residents of the township. Ever since the Supreme Court had scrapped the Bidhannagar Municipality’s property tax structure back in 2007, declaring it as arbitrary, unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. The civic body has been badly suffering a fund crunch, as they could not collect property tax which is a major source of revenue generation. The previous Left run civic body had set a target to collect an annual property tax amount of Rs 12 crore after preparing a new tax structure.
Bidhannagar municipality chairperson Krisna Chakraborty said that the civic body is ready to collect property tax once the waiver scheme gets introduced. “We are ready. Introducing the tax waiver scheme will benefit us much,” she said. The civic body is hoping to collect valuable revenues by collecting tax following the old tax rate.
Civic officials said that the residents of the township will be benefitted with the introduction of the waiver scheme as most residents have not paid tax since 2007 following the Court verdict. Till now, tax arrears run into crores. With the introduction of the waiver scheme, most of the residents will likely be required to clear the principal due.
However, the Bidhannagar Welfare Association that has been continuously fighting on this disputed property tax issue wanted to know about what the government was exactly planning on. “We have not been informed as to what amount of tax the residents have to pay, so where does the question of having a tax waiver scheme comes from?” said association general secretary Kumar Shankar Sadhu.
The civic body had also decided to make fresh assessments of tax and was to send self assessment forms to the residents. The welfare association had been repeatedly saying that the civic body had no bar of collecting tax following the old tax structure.
KMC drive to clear parks of advertisement clutter
KOLKATA: After pulling down hoardings from the city’s heritage zones, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will now remove clean up city parks of billboards.
KMC officials are going around the city identifying parks where hoardings have been set up. The order o remove the clutter from parks has come from the chief minister’s office, say sources. A KMC team has already started demolishing billboards in such areas, beginning with large billboards that almost hide the parks.
In the first phase, civic officials pulled down billboards from a large number of parks and waterbodies in the central and northern areas of the city. Billboards had been set up even on Mother Teresa Park on Park Street. These have been torn down. In north Kolkata, Mohammed Ali Park and Deshabandhu Park have been cleaned of ad clutter.
The KMC team then decided to go south and demolished billboards in front of Jatin Das Park and Harish Park. “It’s a major project. We are going to expand the drive all across the city. Some more prominent parks in south Kolkata remain to be cleaned up. After that we will take it to other areas and cover the entire city,” MMiC, parks, Debasish Kumar said.
Sources in the KMC parks department said the staff was “under pressure” to remove hoardings from all major parks in the city. However, some KMC advertisement officials don’t agree with the manner in which the hoardings are being pulled down. “Our income from billboards has gone down in recent times. We need to frame a policy so that our revenue generation does not suffer,” said a KMC advertisement department official.
Owners of city-based hoarding agencies, too, felt that it was a hasty and hurried step by the civic body to pull down hoardings from near parks. “We have approval letters from the KMC advertisement department to install hoardings in front of these parks. Now, they are asking us to take them down without offering us alternative sites,” said the owner of a major outdoor ad agency.
However, the parks department MMiC felt it was the KMC’s duty to honour the CMO directive. “What we know is that we have to clear billboards,” Kumar said.
Adi Ganga: HC seeks affidavits from state, KMC
KOLKATA: Calcutta high court on Friday directed the state government and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to file affidavits by January 20, outlining steps taken by them to maintain the Adi Ganga behind Kalighat temple.
Following a status report on the Adi Ganga filed by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) on the court’s order, the divsion bench of Chief Justice J N Patel and Justice S Chakraborty issued the directive.
On January 2, the bench had directed PCB to inspect the Adi Ganga and file a status report by Friday. In its report, PCB stated that the quality of water in the Adi Ganga is very poor. It is dark in colour and has an unpleasant smell, the report said.
The PCB report recommended some issues. One of them is immediate dredging of silt deposited in the river bed and removal of solid waste to restore the flow of water. The report also recommended launching an awareness campaign among people of the area. Besides, the discharge of untreated sewage into the river should stop and police should be directed to keep a strict vigil, the report said. After considering the report, the bench directed the urban development secretary, KMDA, KMC and the Municipal Engineering Directorate to file affidavits stating steps taken to prevent pollution of the Adi Ganga.
Hawker menace chokes hospitals
KOLKATA: It’s not just SSKM Hospital that had been turned into a hawking zone. Unauthorized stalls, squatters, beggars and sundry other encroachers continue to occupy government hospital premises and their vicinity, across the city. They have blocked pavements along the hospital boundaries, narrowed down their entrances and keep littering the compounds.
A couple of hospitals even have permanent hawker stalls selling food and tea, including one which shares space with a police outpost at the Chittaranjan National Medical College. The rule framed under the National Hawker Policy specifies that food stalls will not be permitted along hospital boundaries, though they could be set up on the opposite pavement. Only water and “items for patients’ use” could be sold.
Walking into the Chittaranjan National Medical College could be hazardous. The pavement along CIT Road remain clogged with stalls selling a wide variety of street food including biryani, rolls, tadka and roti. There are about ten jostling for space on the CIT Road pavement which extend right up to the main entrance of the hospital.
The adjacent Gora Chand Road pavement has a row of more than 30 stalls. Those entering the hospital on foot have no choice but to walk along the thoroughfare. Cars and ambulances find it dificult to negotiate the narrow entrance.
As if this was not enough, the hospital even has a permanent tea and snack stall that shares space with a police outpost. There’s an authorized food stall next door, the first-floor of which is reserved for doctors. Some hospital employees argue that since it’s too expensive, hawker stalls help patients’ families to buy food at cheaper rates. All, however, don’t agree.
Ratan Malakar, who carried his ailing nephew to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, felt the stalls should be demolished immediately. “They are not just an eyesore, but risky as well. I had to walk along the main road even as I was carrying my nephew for there’s no space on the pavement,” he said. Several food stalls on the pavement use LPG cylinders.
Stall-owners said there has been about a 40% increment in the number of hawkers over the last three years.
NRS Medical College Hospital is a veritable street-food market. A serpentine row of food stalls, selling every conceivable snack vie for your attention on the APC Road pavement . From Chinese platters to naan rotis and from fruits to biryani, you can pick from a wide offering. The pavement remains littered with food scraps and paper cups. There’s no unauthorized stall inside the hospital gates, though.
But doctors and employees pointed out that the hospital toilets are used by around 90 hawkers who sell their wares on the pavement. Some even tap hospital electric lines and often choke the sewers with their litter.
“Another major concern is the hygiene. The major share of the vast quantity of food sold by them are consumed by patients and their families. It’s far from desirable. At the same time, we need to provide food to those who visit hospitals. An option could be to have a restricted number of hawkers with licenses who would be accountable for the quality of food they sell,” said Subir Ganguly, oncologist at NRS.
Thwe NRS pavement didn’t have more than 50 hawkers till 2009, said Shaktiman Ghosh, general secretary of the Hawker Sangram Committee. “They have been allowed to proliferate. We have never let food hawkers squat on hospital pavements. Had the police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation played their roles, this could have been prevented,” said Ghosh.
RG Kar Hospital is a free trading zone for food hawkers. And the pavement running around its premises is still up for grabs. Around a dozen selling tea, biscuits, cakes, fruits, rice and other food items have encroached the pavement. Here, too, LPG cylinders and stoves are freely used. The periphery still has unoccupied space.
“We hope we don’t get more hawkers on the pavement. As it is, they dirty the pavements and keep infiltrating the premise. We always have to be on guard and throw them out. More importantly, the stalls have narrowed down the entrance which is risky,” said Ajay Ray, hospital superintendent.
Calcutta Medical College Hospital has less than a dozen food stalls at its gates. It’s the only hospital where hawking is done as per rule. Only fruits are sold on the hospital pavement along College Street. There are just three of them. The rear gate has around four selling food and tea, though.
“We have enough food kiosks inside the hospital. Food stalls at hospital gates are indeed hazardous. We are lucky to have fewer stalls, but the civic authorities and the police must be on guard,” said Siddhartha Chakrabarty, suprintendent.
