KOLKATA: Newly-elected Trinamool MP Mimi Chakrabarty was in for an embarrassment when she approached a minister in the Mamata cabinet for funds for repair of an arterial road and was asked to spare it from her Local Area Development (LAD) fund.
The letter and reply have turned into a talking point in Kolkata’s political circles as both the elected representatives belong to West Bengal’s ruling party.
Sources in Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) under Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, said Chakrabarty had written a letter to Hakim to take measures to repair the stretch of the EM Bypass, from Kamalgaji to Baruipur. “A miffed minister, who took the letter as an insult, wrote back to Chakrabarty suggesting that she use her MPLAD fund,’’ said a KMDA official.
The MP informed her party leaders about Hakim’s reply. “She said the financial grant she received from the Centre for carrying out development works in her Lok Sabha constituency was not enough to repair the stretch,’’ said the official.