KOLKATA:
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation will not levy tax on drinking water
for the citizens. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee made it clear at a
function on Tuesday evening at Dhapa, located off Eastern Metropolitan
Bypass where the CM inaugurated a water treatment plant with a capacity
to supply 30 million gallons of filtered water. While expressing
happiness that the new water treatment plant would meet the demands of
lakhs of residents living along EM Bypass, Banerjee raised the tax issue
and made it amply clear that the Trinamool Congress was dead against
imposition of tax on drinking water.

“When we came to power in
2000 in the KMC, I advised the then mayor Subrata Mukherjee to arrange
for sufficient water for the citizens across Kolkata. But I had also
advised not to levy tax on water as it is an essential service which
should come free of cost. I am glad that the KMC has constructed a water
treatment plant to cater the entire EM Bypass population. Even today I
have advised not to levy tax on this essential service,” Banerjee said
after inaugurating the water treatment plant. Banerjee advised mayor
Sovan Chatterjee who was present at the function to ensure safety and
security of the entire water treatment plant complex.

“I think
the civic body needs a police outpost to man the new water plant as it
is a sensitive installation,” Banerjee said. In reply, the mayor said
that the KMC had already donated 1.5 bigha land to Kolkata police to set
up a police station for the safety of the water treatment plant. Former
mayor Subrata Mukherjee also present at the function recalled how the
Trinamool Congress run KMC board had initiated augmentation of water
supply in Kolkata by modernizing Palta waterworks. CM speaking at the
function asked the mayor to ensure that people get filtered water at the
earliest. According to the KMC water supply department officials, the
residents of EM Bypass from Beliaghata to Patuli (Garia) would get
filtered water from the newly constructed plant by next three weeks.