New civic boss takes charge

Patna: Anupam Kumar Suman, who took charge as the city’s new municipal commissioner on Tuesday, said his new role is challenging because the city has a lot of historical importance.

His being enamoured with the state capital’s history and mentioning it on his first day in office is not surprising, because he holds an MA degree in cultural astronomy and astrology from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

“Not only this, the outgoing commissioner, Keshav Ranjan Prasad, has also outdone his job which makes the task even more difficult for me,” said Suman, a 2004 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer who is also an alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science (MSc in social policy and development), and was a maths honours graduate of Patna University (1995-98 batch).

Mayor Sita Sahu, deputy municipal commissioner Vishal Anand and other Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials were present as Suman took over from Prasad at the PMC headquarter at Mauryalok Complex.

The new municipal commissioner made it clear in the first meeting with officials of the corporation that ensuring sanitation in and around the city was his topmost priority.

He also talked about creating vending zones and addressing waterlogging woes by ensuring proper planning.

“Making homes for the urban poor people, ensuring the maintenance of the machines used for civic works, capacity building of the corporation and its modernisation would be my other priorities,” Suman said.

“I have also studied about urban development. My learning would help me in better management of the civic works,” he added.

Mayor Sahu, however, expressed concern over changing of the municipal commissioner at a time when the monsoon was knocking on the state’s door.

“The new civic boss has many challenges ahead of him including how to address the monsoon woes. We hope that he will find ways to address the issue in the short span of time,” she said.

Deputy municipal commissioner Vishal Anand, who was organising the joint programme of welcoming the new civic boss and the farewell programme of the outgoing civic boss, said the corporation would do its best to address monsoon and other civic-related issues under the guidance of Suman.

Additional municipal commissioner Uday Krishna, the PMC’s chief engineer Ashok Kumar, and Shailesh Kumar, executive officer of the New Capital circle of the corporation, were also present on the occasion.

Courtesy: The Telegraph