Panihati Municipality e-Newsletter September 2015, VOLUME-4

The City: Panihati Municipality, the Southern part of erstwhile South Barrackpur Union (a local Self Government in1969) came into being on 1st April in the year 1900. Now it is a major municipality in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area on the East Bank of the Ganga. Situated on the industrial belt of Kolkata, to its west lies the Ganga, to north and south Khardaha canal and Khardaha municipality, to east North Dum Dum municipality and Bilkanda gram- panchayat. It is served by south-eastern railway at Sodepur & Agarpara stations, by Barrackpore Trunk Road, Nilganj Road (Old Calcutta road), Barasat Road (Raja Chandraketu road), Chittaranjan road, East & South Station road among many. Soon it will be served by North-South Metro Rail.

Municipal Vision: “Panihati Municipality will work for the improvement of physical and social infrastructure with due consideration for pro-poor, participatory and inclusive development based with equity and equality. It includes concern for environmental factors (in widest sense of the term covering pollution-free environment, development of greenery and enhancement of overall beautification of the city etc.), introducing gender and child sensitive policies, provision for ‘shelter for shelter less’, primary and mass education facility especially for the children of economically weak and linguistic minority sections. This will enable the citizens across the sectors of the society to be healthy, knowledgeable and economically self-sufficient. The municipality aims to achieve its goals through mobilization of local and other resources, efficiency, better citizen interface and organizational development.”

City at a Glance:

Sl.no Indicator 2001 2011 2015 1 Area (inSqKm) 19.38 19.38 19.38 1.1 Planning Area (Sq. Km ) Do Do Do 1.2 Municipal Area (Sq. Km) Do Do Do 1.3 Area of Slums(Sq. Km) 7.35 9.48 2 Number of Municipal Wards 35 35 35 3 Population and Households 3.1 Total Population

(no’sinmillions) 0.348 0.377 0.389

3.2 Number of Households 71587 85985 88645 3.3 Density of Population 18167 19674 20300 3.4 Slum households as

percentage of total Households in city

30% 50.49%

3.5 Current (2015) Population(Year of Survey) (no’sinmillions)

.38 million (as projected in SFCPoA2015)

3.6 Current Number (2015) of Households(Year of survey)

88645(as projected in SFCPoA2015)

3.7 Slum population as percentageof total population in city

35%(app) 50.47%

From The Desk of Chairman:

Friends, Sharodia Durgotsob 2015 is just round the corner. All my fellow citizens of are surely busy with planning for their festive seasons. We have just enjoyed the ID-UD-Zoha festival and I convey my heartfelt Greetings and Well wishes to all my Muslim brothers and sisters of Panihati Municipality as well as the community at large. I hope that every one of us would be able to have blessings from the Almighty to live in peace and harmony. Our Nation has always believed in a great tradition of composite culture where Unity in Diversity has been accepted as the strongpoint and one of the major determining factors of our democratic ways of living. Indian philosophy as well as Indian Constitution has also nurtured the same beliefs and practices. To speak specifically, West Bengal has also been maintained the glory of communal harmony magnificently with peaceful coexistence and mutual cooperation of various religions, faiths and practices. We celebrate our festivals together and enjoy one another’s joy and happiness; we also share our sorrow and pain together and extend support to each other in time of need. This is the richness of our culture we live with and believe from the core of our heart. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojona (PMAY)-Housing For all programme has recently been initiated in Panihati Municipality along with Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Sawcch Bharat Mission (SBM) .As per the Guideline preparation of Housing for All Plan of Action (HFAPOA) necessitates Housing Demand Survey for assessing the current requirement of the Housing stock at the city level. This survey has been done in the quick succession of the workshops launched by SUDA in 10th-12th September,2015. Time constraints were felt as a major factor in the process to reach the all eligible beneficiaries. The demand survey has created a tremendous curiosity among the citizens of Panihati Municipality and many of them have come to the ULB for collecting information about the scheme. The previous reports have recorded presence of 30000 nos. of kaccha and semi-pucca households within the Municipal area. At the end of the survey, it appears that demand survey captured near about 15,450 applications so far. Therefore, there may be chances of left out of the eligible beneficiaries during the survey process. Some of them may be covered with the scope of future projections of the provisional beneficiaries list.

I am very glad to apprise you that Panihati Municipality will prepare its Housing for All Plan of Action report for the year 2015-16 to 2021-22 for the purpose of addressing the Housing need of the citizens -especially for the poor and marginalized economically weaker sections people-residing within the jurisdiction of this Municipality.

Swapan Ghosh

Chiarman, Panihati Municipality

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Housing for All by 2022: The Scheme

Hon’ble Prime Minister envisioned Housing for All by 2022 when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence. In order to achieve this objective, Central Government has launched a comprehensive mission “Housing for All by 2022”.Housing for All (HFA) mission is since launched in compliance with the above objective of the Government and with the approval of competent authority. According to the terms of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the government of India will undertake to construct about two crore houses by the year 2022. The ‘Housing for All’ scheme will replace all previous government housing schemes such as the Rajiv Awas Yojana.

• Housing for All by 2022 approved by Cabinet on 17.06.2015

• Guidelines launched on 25.06.2015, Mission will be implemented upto 31.03.2022.

• Mission to cover all 4041 statutory towns and beneficiaries belonging to EWS, LIG categories. All statutory cities/ towns will be covered.

The mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:

“In situ” Rehabilitation of slum dwellers using land as a resource through private participation.

Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS).

Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP)

Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement (BLC).

• Credit Linked subsidy component is Central Sector Scheme while other 3 to be implemented as Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

Project Updates: Housing for All Mission Directorate Office, West Bengal has conducted a 3 day workshop (10 to 12th September,2015) at State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) Office, West Bengal with the ULBs of West Bengal and provided all the necessary directions and guidelines of the scheme in consonance with the MOHUPA scheme guidelines for conduction of the Demand Survey in the ULBs. Selection of enumerators and supervisors for the Demand Survey has been done at Panihati Municipality following the said directions and a formal meeting with concerned stakeholders like ULB officials and Councillors of Panihati Municipality and an orientation of the scheme has been done at 19th September, 2015. In the same meeting training for the enumerators and supervisors on the survey formats has also been conducted. The demand survey on the survey format B started since 21st September 2015 and before 30th September 2015 (the preliminary target date for completion of the survey); 90% of the survey in the field has been completed. The applications were received at ULB up to 5th October 2015 and the data entry

process was started right away with the prescribed software. The scheme has also been made available at ULB website for wide circulation of the programme.

Stakeholders Consultative Workshop / Meetings National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM): National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) has replaced Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) as the flagship urban poverty alleviation programme and is being implemented in the State from 1'' April, 2014. As per NULM Mission Document prepared by MOHUPA, Govt. of India; the Mission of the project is “To reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in an appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots level institutions of the poor. The mission would aim at providing shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner. In addition, the Mission would also address livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street vendors for accessing emerging market opportunities.” As being one of the Mission cities, Panihati Municipality has also taken initiatives to fulfill the Mission Objectives. An important component of NULM is 'Employment through Skill Training & Placement' (EST&P) which aims at skilling the unskilled urban poor for generation of sustainable livelihoods and improve their standard of living. The ULB has selected some job oriented training courses like Financial Accounting, Hardware & Networking, Computer Basic

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The Demand survey orientation meeting has been conducted on 19th September 2015 at the Lok Sanskriti Bhavan Kovi Nazrul moncho of Paniahati Municipality. The meeting was chaired by the Hon’ble Chairman, Panihati Municipality. Councillors and Officials of various departments of Panihati Municipality along with the enumerators and supervisors of the Demand Survey have attended the meeting.

and data Entry Operator, Beautician, Physiotherapy, Laboratory Assistant, Laboratory Assistant, ECG Technician, Junior Land Surveyor etc. for more than 600 beneficiaries. Events: Say No To ‘Bandhs’: Complying with the West Bengal State Govt. Policy under the leadership of our beloved Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee, Panihati Municipality has recorded more than 90% attendance in the office by the employees of the Municipality on September 2nd 2015. This was one of the Days of 24 hours ‘Bangla Bandh’ (strike) called by a political party. The attendance record in the office on that day was commendable in the light of preventing the “Bandh Culture” called by the political parties to hinder the progress of the development. Changing scenarios of Work Culture in West Bengal and reinstating the work-friendly environment to counter the erstwhile negative image of ‘Bandh’ and ‘Hartal’ has always been the cherished dream of our Honourble Chief Minister. The present ruling party in Govt. of West Bengal has strongly opposed the Bandh (Strike) and avowedly takes measures for maintaining the normalcy on that day. Sensing the difficulties and inconveniences faced by the employees of the Municipality on such a ‘Bandh’, Sri Swapan Ghosh, Honorable Chairman of Panihati Municipality has given consent on the arrangement of lunch with ‘Khichuri, Begunbhaja etc.’ Employees of our Municipality relished the arrangement and thanked the authority for this.

Second Electric Crematorium unit at Panihati Mahashoshan: The auspicious occasion of laying the Foundation stone of the Second Electric Crematorium unit at Panihati Mahashoshan was held on 5th September, 2015. The programme started at 11 am. Honourable Member of Parliament from DumDum Lok Sabha Kendra Prof. Sougata Roy laid the foundation stone in presence of Sri Nirmal Ghosh-The Honourable Member of Legislative Assembly, West Bengal and the Chief Guest of the programme along with Sri Swapan Ghosh –The Honourable Chairman of Panihati Municipality who presided over the programme. The Councillors, Officials, employees and local community people attended the auspicious occasion in large numbers. It was expected that the prject work would be completed very soon and the new unit would start operation from the 2nd or 3rd month of 2016.

Some Meetings/Decisions Updates: September 2015:

All councilors were requested to donate their one month honorarium in favour of Chairman’s Relief Fund.

The problem of disposal of solid waste has been discussed and necessary measures would follow.

The issue of restrictions on usage of plastics was discussed and decisions have been made on strengthening the awareness programme through leaflets, hoardings, banners would be emphasized before festive days.

Pre-puja measures like repairing of roads/patchwork, clearance of street-side and area-based garbage; adequate lighting, pumping out of stagnant water etc. were discussed.

The collection rate of lease right/sub-lease right/tenancy right transfer fees and health cess (10% of the transfer fees) at the time of transfer for the Pansila Municipal Market complex, Agarpara Sen Bazar (shops and stalls of fish and vegetables), Vidyasagar Park Market, Ushumpur, Sodepur Poura bazaar(stalls and shops) has been determined and approved in the board meeting.

Applications were invited within 19th September, 2015 from the bonafide Indian citizens for recruitment of 03 nos. Managerial posts for City Mission Management Unit (CMMU) under National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

For Feedback and Suggestions Please Contact: Panihati Municipality

Panihati , North 24 Parganas, Pin no.- 700 114 Phone: 2553-2909/2563-4457 Fax : 2553-1487 Website- www.panihatimunicipality.in Email ID- panihatimunicipality@yahoo.co.in