KOLKATA: Citizens who cannot meet municipal commissioner Binod Kumar due to the pandemic, but require solutions to various problems, will be able to do so virtually.
On Wednesday, Kolkata Municipal Corporation will roll out a facility where Kumar will meet with citizens virtually twice every week — on Wednesdays and Saturdays — from 11am to noon.
Special municipal commissioner Somnath De will also be available for virtual meetings twice a week — on Tuesdays and Thursdays — at the same time slot.
De will take questions on problems related to property tax, licences, KMC-run markets and car parking.
According to an official in the civic administration, the interactive programme was planned after seeing the demand for a similar programme, ‘Talk to the KMC’, held every Saturday where KMC Board of Administrators chairman Firhad Hakim interacts with citizens.
“Though the BoA chairman passes necessary instructions on to senior civic officials to solve problems based on his interaction with the citizens, Kolkata residents can meet him only once every week.
We thought we should offer more such virtual windows to the citizens,” said a senior KMC official.
According to a KMC source, due to restrictions imposed on movement because of the pandemic, several civic departments are getting flooded with inquiries from across the city, which the officials of the departments concerned are passing on to the office of the municipal commissioner and the special commissioner.
“Now, they themselves will hold virtual meetings and take direct calls about different problems being faced by the citizens,” said a senior civic official.
The departments getting the maximum calls include buildings, health, water supply, assessment collection and car parking.