Kolkata: A room on the first-floor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters, which was earlier used by former mayoral council member Debabrata Majumdar, has been allotted to Swami Pradiptananda, also known as Kartik Maharaj.He is the chairperson of a 10-member committee set up by the Bengal govt to rename roads, bridges and public places across the state.A KMC official said, “We have painted the room fresh. We received instructions from KMC brass that Kartik Maharaj will need a room as the chairperson of the road naming/renaming committee.”The first floor is where the KMC administrator and commissioner Smita Pandey has her office. It is also where the mayor’s chamber is located.Kartik Maharaj said, “I will come to Kolkata on Sept 20 and go to the office. The operations of the road renaming panel will operate from there. We will probably hold our first meeting after the pujas here. Those who are interested in submitting proposals can drop their suggestions at this office.”Senior KMC officials inspected the room and decided on fixing it for Kartik Maharaj. Officials said they were asked to make the room ready by Thursday as Kartik Maharaj was scheduled to come to the office on Friday. But with the state govt now announcing Friday as a holiday for Vishwakarma Puja, officials did not know when the monk could visit KMC. “We will decide on a nameplate after discussing with him,” said the official.KMC used to have a road renaming panel of its own until the Trinamool-run board was in office at the civic body. Sources said they believed the old committee naturally ceased to exist once the TMC-run board of KMC was dissolved.Sources said the panel will take up proposals for renaming Kolkata’s streets in the first phase. Among the other members of the panel, which was constituted last Friday, are former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy, CM’s adviser Subrata Gupta and KMC commissioner Smita Pandey.
