Mamata Banerjee loyalist Sovan Chattopadhyay was today sworn-in as the city Mayor with his first announcement being there would be no water tax on middle and lower middle class.
"There will be no water tax on middle class and lower middle class in keeping with the party's election manifesto," Chattopadhyay, who was elected unopposed in the newly-constituted board of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, said.
Sachchidananda Banerjee of Trinamool Congress was sworn in as the chairman in the absence of any candidate from the Left Front. Farzana Alam of TMC took over as Deputy Mayor. The Mayor announced the names for ten-member Mayor-in Council.
The Mayor-in-Council members are Firhad Hakim, Debabrata Majumdar, Rajib Deb, Sashi Panja, Partha Pratim Hazari, Atin Ghosh, Shamsuzzaman Ansari, Manjur Islam, Debashis Kumar and Sanchita Mondol (all belonging to Trinamool). The 141 councillors of the KMC had taken oath yesterday.
The new board has 95 members from Trinamool Congress, 10 from Congress, three from BJP and 33 from the Left Front.
The Trinamool Congress unseated the Left Front from power in the KMC by sweeping the elections held on May 30, which was billed as the 'semi-final' before the West Bengal Assembly polls next year.