Howrah civic body given Rs 10 lakh to repair pipes

HOWRAH: The state government on Monday allotted Rs 10,00,000 to the Howrah Municipal Corporation and asked the municipal body to immediately repair the drinking water pipelines which caused the spread of cholera, resulting in the death of six people so far.
State municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya held a meeting with Gopal Mukherjee, mayor, and all the MICs of HMC during the day and asked them to repair the pipelines within twothree days."Any lackadaisical attitude will be dealt with stringently," he said.
Meanwhile, the impasse over the HMC Commissioner''s post was finally expected to be resolved, with P.C. Patra, at present in the finance department of the state, likely to be appointed the new commissioner. Earlier Patra was the ADM (Judicial) in Howrah and had also held additional charge as Commissioner of HMC.
The post of HMC Commissioner was lying vacant ever since Chanchal Banerjee resigned two months ago. Bidhan Chandra Kirtania, controller of finance, who was officiating as the acting commissioner, is now in Chennai for bypass surgery.
Banerjee took over as the Corporation commissioner on August 1 last year, and had since been embroiled in controversies.