Howrah, Nov 12 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday said the state government would appoint coordinators in the wards of the Howrah Municipal Corporation from December 1 if civic polls could not be held by then, reiterating that only people supportive of his dispensation would be considered for the posts.
Addressing a Chhath Puja programme at Kazipara here, Adhikari also accused opposition parties of obstructing the electoral process, and alleged that residents had been deprived of elected civic representation and proper municipal services for years.
“Those who are likely to lose their security deposits in the elections are the ones obstructing the process,” the CM said, warning that he would approach the Supreme Court against attempts to delay the civic polls, and make the move to appoint coordinators if he failed to get a legal redress on time.
Adhikari maintained that municipal corporations could not be administered indefinitely by government officials, as bureaucrats had their own limitations, and could not fully substitute elected representatives.
“We will appoint only those as coordinators who stand by the government and do not oppose it,” he said.
Stating that basic civic amenities like clean drinking water, proper roads, street lights, primary schools and health centres are people’s rights, the chief minister accused the opposition of thwarting those requirements.
“They (the opposition) are opposed to democracy. We are trying to establish democracy on the ground,” he said.
The announcement came amid uncertainty over the civic polls in Kolkata, following a November 6 Calcutta High Court order.
The order restrained the State Election Commission from issuing a notification for the KMC elections on the basis of the revised ward structure until a single bench disposes of a pending challenge to the delimitation exercise.
The division bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Arjun Ray Mukherjee passed the order on an appeal by former CPI(M) councillor Dipu Das.
The court held that an administrator appointed after the dissolution of an elected municipal corporation could discharge executive functions, but could not exercise the legislative powers of the corporation.
The observations were, however, made in the context of the KMC delimitation dispute, and the order specifically restrained elections to the Kolkata civic body. It did not impose a similar restriction on Howrah.
Elections to the Howrah Municipal Corporation have not been held since 2013, while the tenure of its last elected board expired in 2018. The civic body has since been administered by government-appointed authorities.
The state government had earlier indicated that elections to Howrah and Bally could be held by December, after completing delimitation and other preparatory work.
Earlier, Adhikari had said that coordinators would be appointed in all 209 proposed wards of the KMC from December 1 if elections remained stalled.
The proposal had received the endorsement of state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, who said alternative arrangements would have to be considered if elections could not be held in the prevailing circumstances.
“We cannot appoint someone from a CPI(M) party office or established, identified corrupt elements of the TMC. Our own leaders will become coordinators,” Bhattacharya had said.
The latest statement from Adhikari extended the proposed arrangement to Howrah, signalling the government’s intention to put in place a political layer of ward-level supervision, while elected civic bodies remain absent. PTI SMY RBT
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