Kolkata mayor orders probe after graft complaints by citizens

KOLKATA: Mayor Firhad Hakim on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into a graft allegation against a Kolkata Municipal Corporation conservancy employee who allegedly asked for bribe for disposing of the carcass of a dog. A senior citizen from Kashi Dutta Lane in north Kolkata called up Hakim during a ‘talk-to-mayor’ session to inform him of the matter. The senior citizen used to take care of the ailing dog.
The caller preferred to remain anonymous till Hakim assured him that his identity would not be revealed till the inquiry was over.Hakim was visibly angry and asked the director general of the KMC conservancy department to take the offender to task. “Initiate an inquiry immediately and place the offender under suspension if the charges are proved,” he ordered.
This was not the only ‘graft call’ that Hakim received during an hour-long interaction with citizens. The mayor looked embarrassed when a resident of Behala expressed his desire to air his grievance only to Hakim as it was of ‘serious nature’. As the mayor insisted on taking note of the complaint on phone, the caller alleged that a civic staffer from the water supply department had demanded money for cleaning the water ferrule, which was hindering the flow of KMC-supplied drinking water to his house. According to the caller from Behala, initially they had tried to clean the ferrule on their own.
However, when he saw that some plastic material was coming out of the water lines, he approached a water supply department employee to get it cleaned. But in lieu, he demanded money.
Hakim was furious. He told the caller that demanding money for this was totally illegal. “I will send my officials and make it happen. Don’t worry,” Hakim assured the caller from Behala. Hakim then turned to a senior civic official present at the meeting and asked him to conduct a probe into the allegation. “The offender must be punished to discourage others from harassing tax payers,” Hakim told senior civic officials.