Kaliaganj: Confident of retaining power in all three municipalities of North Dinajpur district in the forthcoming civic polls, massive development work carried out by the Trinamool Congress board in the municipal areas would be the key agenda with which the party would reach out to the people during their poll campaign. Kaliaganj, Dalkhola and Islampur are the three out of four municipalities in the district, which will go for elections in the next two months. Election of Raiganj Municipality will be held later as the election there was held just two years ago. The district Trinamool Congress leadership is confident of retaining all the three municipalities, as the residents of the areas under jurisdiction of these civic bodies "have never witnessed such huge development work ever in the history of North Dinajpur". So, besides issues like implementation of "anti-people Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) and NRC, the district leadership is keeping the issue of development in the forefront as they go for poll campaign. It is for the first time that residents of Kaliaganj Municipality are getting supply of safe drinking water at their houses. Most importantly, the civic authorities have decided to give the connections completely free of cost. There are around 20,000 households in the municipal area and at least 90,000 people will be enjoying benefits of the same. The work of setting up drinking water connections in households is going on in full swing. Initially, owners of around 500 households had applied for the same and already, connections have been installed in houses of 150 applicants. Similarly, a project worth around Rs 50 crore has also been sanctioned to ensure supply of safe drinking water to residents of Dalkhola Municipality. According to Kartik Pal, Chairman of Kaliaganj Municipality, there was nothing called sewarage system in the municipal areas. Trinamool Congress formed its board for the first time in the 17-seat Kaliaganj Municipality in 2016, where 13 councillors hail from the party now. Three are of Congress and one of CPI(M). Soon after forming the board, the work of creating necessary infrastructure for a better sewarage system was taken up based on a master plan. The work is going on and it will immensely help in keeping the town clean. People will no longer need to face inconvenience due to waterlogging in monsoon. Pratik Kumar Sarkar, a local resident, said: "The work of creating drainage system is going on and the major problem of waterlogging in the area during monsoon would be a matter of the past soon." Now, people do not need to travel long distance for primary treatment, as a Municipality Primary Health Centre has come up at Kaliaganj. People are getting such facilities in other municipalities of the district as well. Moreover, now there are amusement and children parks and well-decorated bus-stands, which have given a completely new look to the town. The municipality authorities have also taken up the work of by-laning the two major thoroughfares, with dividers in the middle to check accidents. Road dividers are being set up on 5.2 km of state highway 10A that passes through the town and Kaliaganj Kumarhat Road. Kanaiyalal Agarwal, Trinamool Congress district president, said: "We are confident of winning the polls as people will reelect us on the basis of development work that is being undertaken by our government."

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