ABSTRACT
During the two decades of Congress Party rule, from independence to 1967, little was done to stern the dec1ine ofCalcutta. The Basic Development Plan was prepared toward the end of this period, and key decisions were made regarding major infrastructure requirements. Congress strength, however, lay principally in the countryside, and there was little willingness to raise the resources needed to contend with the deteriorating state of the city. Taxation was kept down to the minimum. In the Calcutta Metropolitan Corporation (CMC) corruption and petty politics pushed aside any serious commitment to address the problems of the city. In the late 1960s radicalleft-wing violence with land-grab origins, known as the Naxilite movement, spread into Calcutta. Political turbulence and fragmentation culminated when West Bengal was placed under presidential rule, with the state governor appointed by New Delhi. There was no return to normal political activity until the 1977 elections, when a communist-dominated coalition known as the Left Front, composed of the Communist Party of India, or CPI (supported by the Soviet Union), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), and their allies developed strength and handed the Congress Party its first electoral defeat.
