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Welcome to Berhampore Municipality
INTRODUCTION
Berhampore Municipality is one of the oldest municipalities in West Bengal. Many eminent and respectable personalities, including Maharaja Manindra Chandra Nandi and Maharaja Shris Chandra Nandi chaired this municipality in different times which made this institution a heritage one. The area boundary of Berhampore Municipality was specified in the year 1869 and in 1876 Berhampore Municipality was established. In the very beginning, the British Government did not leave the governance of this municipality completely in the hand of Non Government folks as after Sipoy Mutiny in 1857, a large number British army people stayed at Berhamopore Cantonment area. Therefore the Municipality was constituted with both the government and non government peoples. The municipal board was constituted by, 14 non-governmental members and 5 government nominated members, total 19 members. This trend was continued up to 1884.The District Magistrate acted as the President of the Municipality during this tenure. In the year 1884, according to “Bengal Municipal Act 1876”, finally the Administration and management of Berhampore Municipality was handed over to 14 elected and 5 governments nominated members. The first Chairman of Berhampore Municipality (1884) was Ray Bahadur Baikunthanath Sen, who was a reputed Advocate and the President of District Bar Association as well. That time the area of Berhampore Municipality was divided into 6 wards i.e. 1) Gorabazar 2) Cantonment 3) Berhampore 4) Khagra 5) Saidabad and 6) Cossimbazar. The numbers of elected members from each ward were as follows, 3 from Gorabazar,1 from Cantonment,4 from Berhampore ,3 from Khagra,2 from Saidabad and 1 member from Cossimbazar ward .Now the Municipality is comprised of 23 wards and one elected member from each ward.Total area of this municipality is 31.42 sq.km. and it has a population of 1,60,168.It is the district head quarter of Murshidabad. Just after the establishment of Berhampore Municipality, it undertook a systematic plan for the drainage of this cantonment town. The then Executive Engineer designed the whole system. main objective of this drainage system was not only for flowing the polluted water out of the town but also using the water for irrigation and “Pisces Cultur”. Laxmijola drainage, Osmankhali Drainage, Khagra sluice and Bibiganj Sluice were constructed under this scheme. The plan was to flow the dirty, polluted water through those drains and sluices and fall into water bodies outside Berhampore.It was thought that total drainage system would be flashed into the River Bhagirathi.This 100 years old drainage network system is now almost abandoned.
VISION OF BERHAMPORE MUNICIPALITY
Our vision is to ensure 100% comfortable livelihood for all the citizens by rendering more improved, transparent and citizen- friendly municipal services.Covering the issues of environmental protection, extension of network of roads, drainage system, supplying of safe drinking water, scientific ways of SWM, education, basic health facilities, tourism development, creation of alternative ways of income generation specially for the urban poor and need based services for the vulnerable sections; our municipality intends to offer an ideal urbanization to its citizens during the plan period.
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