Kolkata Municipal Corporation (abbreviated KMC; also Calcutta Municipal Corporation) is the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

of the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n city of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, the

state capital Below is an index of pages containing lists of capital cities. National capitals *List of national capitals *List of national capitals by latitude *List of national capitals by population *List of national capitals by area *List of capital citie ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. This civic administrative body administers an area of . Its

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

, ''Purosri Bibardhan'', is inscribed on its

emblem An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and '' symbol'' are often use ...

Bengali script Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Geography

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is located at in

Department

Structure

Kolkata Municipal Corporation was established in 1876. Under the guidance of the first Minister of Local Self-Government in Bengal, Sir

Surendranath Banerjee Sir Surendranath Banerjee often known as Rashtraguru ( bn, Rāṣṭraguru, Teacher of the Nation; 10 November 18486 August 1925) was Indian nationalist leader during the British Rule. He founded a nationalist organization called the Indian Nat ...

, the Calcutta Municipal Act of 1923 made provision for the enfranchisement of women and the election of a

Mayor of Kolkata The Mayor of Kolkata is the chief executive of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, one of the civic authorities in the Indian city of Kolkata. He is the ''First Citizen'' of the city of Kolkata. There have been 38 mayors of Kolkata in total ti ...

annually. Deshbandhu

Chittaranjan Das Chittaranjan Das (5 November 1870 – 16 June 1925), popularly called ''Deshbandhu'' (Friend of the Nation), was an Indian freedom fighter, political activist and lawyer during the Indian independence movement and founder-leader of the Swar ...

was the first Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation with

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...

as his Chief Executive Officer. Later mayors include

Deshapriya Jatindra Mohan Sengupta Jatindra Mohan Sengupta (22 February 1885 – 23 July 1933) was an Indian revolutionary against the British rule. He was arrested several times by the British police. In 1933, he died in a prison located in Ranchi, India. Sengupta studied at Ha ...

Bidhan Chandra Roy Bidhan Chandra Roy (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was an Indian physician, educationist, and statesman who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 until his death in 1962. Roy played a key role in the founding of several institutio ...

Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Nalini Ranjan Sarkar () (1882–25 January 1953) was an Indian businessman, industrialist, economist, and public leader. He was greatly involved in the political and economic regeneration of Bengal. Sarkar was Finance Minister of West Bengal in ...

Abul Kasem Fazlul Haque Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq ( bn, আবুল কাশেম ফজলুল হক, ur, ; 26October 1873 — 27 April 1962), popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla (''Lion of Bengal''), was a British Indian and Pakistani lawyer and writer who presen ...

, and for the 2010–2015 and 2015–2018 term,

Sovan Chatterjee Sovan Chatterjee (born 7 July 1964) is an Indian politician. He is a former member of Bharatiya Janata Party, and former Mayor of the city of Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Chatterjee served as a Kolkata Municipal Corpo ...

Kolkata Municipal Corporation ward level map as of 2011 Census

The city is divided into 144 administrative

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

s that are grouped into 16

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

s. Each of these wards elects a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

to the KMC. Each borough has a committee consisting of the councillors elected from the respective wards of the boroughs. The Corporation, through the borough committees, maintains government-aided schools, hospitals and municipal markets and partakes in urban planning and road maintenance. The corporation as the apex body discharges its function through the Mayor-in-Council, consisting of a mayor, assisted by a deputy mayor, and ten other elected members of the KMC. The mayor is responsible for the overall functioning of the KMC and has a tenure of five years. At present, the

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

holds the power in the KMC.

Budget

As of 2021, the

city government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

's budget is , out of which was earmarked for roads and transport infrastructure, is to be spent on solid waste management, on water supply and on health services.

Criticism

Recently the KMC has faced a lot of criticism for legalising unauthorized construction largely responsible for a number of deaths because of fire. This was also responsible of the unplanned growth in the city.

The Sheriff of Kolkata and The KMDA

The city also has an apolitical

titular Titular may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Title character in a narrative work, the character referred to in its title Religion * Titular (Catholicism), a cardinal who holds a titulus, one of the main churches of Rome ** Titular bisho ...

post, that of the

Sheriff of Kolkata The Sheriff of Kolkata is an apolitical titular position of authority bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Kolkata (Calcutta). The Sheriff has an office and staff in Calcutta High Court but does not have executive powers. Mumbai (Bo ...

. The Sheriff presides over various city-related functions and conferences. Another ancillary civic body is the

Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is the statutory planning and development authority for the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) in the state of West Bengal, India. The organisation used to be known as Calcutta Metropolitan Developm ...

(KMDA) responsible for the statutory planning and development of the

Kolkata Metropolitan Area Kolkata Metropolitan Area (abbreviated KMA; formerly Calcutta Metropolitan Area), also known as Greater Kolkata, is the urban agglomeration of the city of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the third most populous metropolitan are ...

(KMA). The KMA includes a large suburban

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

around the urban centres of Kolkata.

Area of jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the KMC covers the area covered by the

Kolkata Police The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannag ...

(which in turn includes the area of Kolkata District / KMC) In 2011, it was announced that Kolkata Police and Kolkata Municipal Corporation area will be coterminous. Kolkata Postal District however extends right up to Barrackpur in the North, Barasat in the North-East, Rajarhat in the East, up to Baruipur in South-East and Pailan in South and up to Pujali in South-West. The Postal code in this entire area starts with 700, indicating Postal Sorting Division of Kolkata. Thus Kolkata Postal Division is much bigger than the area of KMC (Kolkata District) and Kolkata Police.

Services

The KMC is responsible for administering and providing basic infrastructure to the city. * Water purification and supply * Sewage treatment and disposal *

Garbage disposal A garbage disposal unit (also known as a waste disposal unit, garbage disposer, garburator etc.) is a device, usually electrically powered, installed under a kitchen sink between the sink's drain and the trap. The disposal unit shreds food was ...

and street cleanliness * Food Inspection:Through KMC Food Inspectors *

Solid waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

* Building and maintenance of roads, streets and flyovers. *

Street lighting A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution ...

* Maintenance of

parks A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

and open spaces *

Cemeteries A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

and Crematoriums * Registering of births and deaths * Conservation of heritage sites * Disease control, including

immunisation Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-sel ...

* Public municipal schools etc. Control Room of Kolkata Municipal Corporation can be contacted at (033) 2286-1212.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipal corporations in West Bengal Organisations based in Kolkata Buildings and structures in Kolkata 1876 establishments in British India Government of Kolkata