As the clock strikes twelve tonight, people, all over the world, cheer and wish each other a happy new year! Every year begins with a wish, a dream and a pledge. 2011 is all about optimism and an occasion to look forward to good times ahead and spread happiness.

I, as an inveterate Kolkatan, pray hard that my city continues to be crime-free, tourist-friendly, safe city that it is. But my dream is Kolkata to be least noisy megapolis of India. The city is arguably the noise capital of India. Bulk of the noises, I was told, generated by automobiles, precisely by relentless honking.

Frequent Honking shows our state of mind, our collective impatience. Honking is nothing but a bad habit. Honking does not turn the signal green, nor does it make way for vehicle caught in a snarl. Modern European cities show how honking is redundant. I dream of honking free Kolkata. Can’t we make Sundays strictly no-honking days?

I wish my city with a better traffic sense. Jaywalking is one of the biggest reasons for loss of lives on the road. I sincerely appeal to my fellow citizens not to indulge in jaywalking. Jaywalking may make a family lose its bread-earner. What a sense of waste I feel with every death on the road. I have instructed my traffic department to be very tough on jaywalkers and also on those motorists indulging in over-speed without caring about fellow road-users.

We are planning to install area traffic control (ATC) system which will be an intelligent way of controlling traffic through real-life traffic assessment through ground loop and cameras. The process is in final stage. If our experiment is fruitful, we would extent the preview of ATC to other parts of the city. I wish my fellow Kolkatan to be an aware and alert road-user, conversant to advanced traffic management system we are looking forward to.

Modernization of city police tops my agenda — both in terms of technology, infrastructure, weaponry as well as behavioral aspects. The city police will be using more and more electronic equipment for better surveillance and communication. We are on the threshold of major change — from lathi-wielding cops to intelligent policing. The weaponry is becoming more sophisticated. We have achieved some success in the field of intelligence. We integrate each of these aspects to build an intelligent, invisible safety wall against terror groups. The safety of the city and citizens cannot be compromised.

I have also proposed to the government for a state-of-the-art training centre for the police personnel. The current police training school is old and has certain limitations. Hopefully new year will take the training of our personnel reach a new height.

New Year’s resolutions, like promises, are often made to be broken, but there are some that we must resolve to follow through.

By the turn of the year, thanks to price-rise of essential commodities, burden of making an honest living, of staying healthy weighs heavily on large number of families. Our home-makers who are tasked with making both ends meet with regard to house expenses, face the biggest challenge.  I hope the new year will bring the price of all eatables to affordability of most of our citizens.

As the new year takes the flying start, may it brings peace of heaven to your house and fills your heart with grace and glory, new hopes of brighter tomorrows. Wishing you 365 days of nonstop laughter and good cheers.

Yours truly,

Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti