The state government today appointed Ekam J. Singh, a 2020 batch IAS officer, as the Commissioner of Asansol Municipal Corporation. The Chief Executive Officer of Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) Aditi Choudhury (2014 IAS batch) had been holding dual charge.
Singh was the additional district magistrate (ADM) of Malda prior to today’s notification issued by the Nabanna secretariat. An earlier missive had appointed her as the CEO of ADDA, but the latest communication specifies that Choudhury would continue at ADDA and hand over her AMC post to Singh.
With 106 wards, Asansol Municipal Corporation is the second largest civic body in the state after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The West Bengal government has apparently appointed two separate IAS officers for these two positions to bring more individual focus on developmental work at both AMC and ADDA.
With barely six months to go for the Assembly polls in the state, this bureaucratic reshuffle appears to bring in more administrative streamlining on pending urban development and municipal affairs in the Asansol-Durgapur industrial cities. ADDA is entrusted with the development of infrastructure for townships, industrial parks and urban development planning for Asansol and Durgapur cities, while AMC is responsible for all the civic amenities in Asansol, from conservancy and drainage to lighting and beautification.
Asansol is the second largest city in the state, and Durgapur registers the highest per capita income in the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had bifurcated Burdwan district into East Burdwan and West Burdwan in 2017, with the two mega industrial towns of Asansol and Durgapur situated in West. Asansol was made the new district headquarters, while Burdwan town continued as the headquarters for East.