Didi’s KMC to rid city of political posters & ads

“We, the political parties, irrespective of our colours, pollute the city by writing on the walls and putting up banners. While all this is but a part of politics, there should be a way of doing things. There should be only a few specified zones in the city where there will be political hoardings and banners,” said Banerjee.

“The KMC should enforce a maintenance tax over such areas. Also, there is an excessive crowd of commercial hoardings — they almost hide the city’s sky line. The KMC will soon do something in this regard too,” she said.

Speaking at a programme to inaugurate a scheme under which the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will hand over mediclaim policies worth Rs. 30,000 to members of 1.84 lakh BPL families, Banerjee said, “Health care is the basic right of every individual. We know the sum of money is not very great. But for people of lower middle class families, collecting money for carrying out basic healthcare routines like getting X-rays and other tests done is a big deal. This is our first step towards serving the city’s poor and and saving their lives.”

Done in collaboration with National Insurance Company Ltd, the mediclaim programme will benefit approximately 9 lakh to 11 lakh people. Seven members of a BPL family are entitled to avail of mediclaim. Banerjee also said that those whose names are not there in the list should apply immediately and that they too will be included in the scheme. 

“People cannot always ask for things. They have self-esteem. We have to serve them — not by threatening them or showing them bullets but by doing good work for them. My opposition has forgotten the main motto of a democracy — it is competition of work,” she pointed out.An amount of Rs. 10,000 each was also handed over to 400 widows under the National Family Benefit Scheme. “This Rs. 40 lakh is a token from the KMC to the needy. We wish to repeat this in future,” said Sovan Chatterjee.