What I want Mamata to get right for West Bengal this time

The newly inducted West Bengal government takes charge today, after its swearing in, on May 27. Here’s our wishlist from Didi 2.0 and her team:

1. Oasis may have been talking about the streets of Kolkata when they sang “all the lights that lead the way are blinding!”

In an already debt ridden state what’s the sense in having streets of the capital lined with three-pronged street lamps which for some reason have tacky blue and white fairy lights wrapped around them.

Not only are those exposed wires unsafe, and fuelling a huge electricity bill for the KMC, but why would we wrap lights around… well, lights?

Here’s looking at Bobby da Firhad Hakim, the new minister of urban development and municipal affairs and Sovandeb Chatterjee first-time minister, for power and non-conventional energy sources and also the only name that stood out for not being caught on tape in the Narada sting.

2. There have been some great measures when it comes to cleaning up Kolkata. Garbage compacters, widened roads, dividers with flowering trees (which conversely make widened road narrower again, reference: Sarat Bose Road) Wi-Fi spots but more needs to be done. Fines for littering or spewing paan, ensuring traffic rule violators don’t want around with impunity would be great. Back to you Bobby da.

3. And for that to happen we need an effective police force. They can’t be cowering behind desks, or have their police stations ransacked for doing their jobs and catching the wrong goon/goons who happen to be in pockets of the powers that be. Didi, CM and home minister, have some faith in your forces and let them do their job.

4. There was a time when Didi 1.0 was making off the cuff surprise visits to government hospitals in the city to review and see where they are lacking. But more needs to be done and not just in the city.

Didi your work won’t be done till every villager would be comfortable walking into a district hospital instead of travelling miles to come get treated in the city’s government hospital that are already overflowing with patients. We are looking at you Subrata Mukherjee, minister of Panchayat and rural development, public health engineering.

5. More jobs. Rajarhat maybe a smart city but according to 2013 reports along with sector V it has nearly five million sq ft of empty office space that is yet to be occupied.

The 50-acre plot allotted to Infosys is on the backburner despite the company already having fuelled Rs 75 crore for the land because of Didi’s policy on SEZ projects. Granted Didi came to power on the back of the grassroots and thinking of the poor farmer, but that shouldn’t come at the cost of the city’s employable youth all forced to migrate to distant cities and countries.

Thespian and former tourism minister Bratya Basu, minister of information technology and electronics, are you listening?