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Kolkata: Soon after
taking over the reins of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee had referred to the plight of travellers - particularly
women - on the highways, which have a negligible number of public
toilets. Eleven months into office, her government has embarked on
a massive project to ease the problem.
As part of the scheme, 65 two-storey motels will be set up 30-40
km apart within one year on the national highways, state highways
and other major roads linking tourist hubs.
The two storey motels will basically have four facilities -
lavatory, resting rooms, bus shelters and restaurants. The resting
room section will have two 12-bed dormitories and four double bed
rooms.
"The restaurants will serve cold drinks and snacks," state Housing
Minister Aroop Biswas said.
"The project is the brain child of Mamata Banerjee. We are working
as per her instructions on the project. The motels will be set up
in tourist centres. They will be a big help for tourists,
especially women," said Biswas.
Spread over 7200-8640 square feet, each of the units will require
an expenditure of Rs.30 lakh.
For the densely populated metropolis, which records thousands of
footfalls daily, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has hit upon
the idea of introducing mobile toilets.
The mobile toilet vans will be parked at ten important crowded
points, including the Mahanayak Uttam Kumar metro station in south
Kolkata and Hatibagan Market in the north.
"They will be set up on build and operate basis. And for this, we
will invite proposals from private companies," said member,
mayor-in-council (health and slum development) Atin Ghosh.
But as her government and party-run KMC board gears up to solve a
long-standing problem, Banerjee herself continues to court
controversies.
After facing widespread criticism for banning some newspapers in
public libraries, Banerjee Thursday asked people not to watch
two-three news channels "of the Communist Party of India - Marxist
(CPI-M)."
"There are two to three television channels of the CPI(M) that you
should not watch. Instead listen to songs on other channels," she
said, in the backdrop of the flak that she has drawn over recent
developments like the arrest of a professor for circulating a
cartoon online which the authorities thought was defamatory for
her.
Speaking at an official function in Basirhat of neighbouring North
24 Parganas, Banerjee also advised the people to watch particular
entertainment, music and news channels which she named.
A day after, addressing government doctors, the chief minister
asked the media not to enter hospitals without permission.
"Don't enter hospital premises. Though I don't need permission, I
still take permission of the hospital superintendent before
entering hospital premises. I do it since that's a basic
courtesy," she said.
With her government close to completing a year, Banerjee is also
losing no chance to tom-tom her regime's achievements.
"I will give my government 100 out of 100," "we have completed in
less than a year over 90 percent of the work we had set out to do
in five years," she has said in various programmes.
On Thursday, the chief minister went a step ahead and said her
government had done 10 years' work within this time.
Senior Communist Party of India - Marxist leader and leader of the
opposition in the state assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra was bitingly
sarcastic.
"She is herself the paper setter, examinee and examiner. She is
doing the tabulation also. What more can I say?"
"As railway minister, she has sent the railways to the Intensive
Care Unit. Now she is putting the state on the road to the
Intensive Care Unit," Mishra said.
(Sirshendu Panth can
be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)
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