Appraisal by Ignorance

From Debate to Action ?
IS there some room far hope that Calcutta's misery and suffering are receiving attention? Work on the Farakka barrage is in hand; when completed in the early seventies, the barrage will improve navigation in the Hooghly. The Centre has agreed to bear the cost of alterations in the port and probably also of the construction of a second bridge across the Hooghly. There is, however, no move as yet to translate the blueprints and studies of CMPO into reality: roads, water supply and sewage in the city remain choked at the decision-making level; till these facilities are redeveloped, there is little possibility of making viable improvements in transportation and housing, which alone can lift the general aura of sickness round the city. Fresh elections to the Calcutta municipal corporation are Scheduled in a couple of months; a clean-up of the municipal corporation is a precondition for doing anything worthwhile. The eastern metropolis needs infrastructure investment, of course; more than that it stands desperately in need of organisational inputs