Administrator to be appointed in Kolkata Municipal Corporation amid opposition protest

Kolkata,06 May(HS): For the first time in the long history of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) an Administrator will take charge from 08 May following the expiry of the five year term of the Municipal body.

Informing this sources at Nabanna here today said that though the formal announcement in this regard was yet to be made. The name of city Mayor Firhad Hakim had unanimously been considered for the post and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was likely to formally announce his name latest by tomorrow since the term of the New Administrator in accordance with the ‘ Removal of Difficulties Act’ under the present circumstances must begin from 08 May as per the law.

According to them, the state government had no other option but to resort to this measure in the wake of the postponement of the scheduled elections of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and all other Municipalities in the state in view of the outbreak of  COVID-19 pandemic and the present extraordinary situation in the state.

Before the onset of the present pandemic situation, the state government had recommended to the state Election Commission expressing its desire to hold elections to all 141 wards under KMC  in mid-April before holding similar elections to all  95 other Municipatieis in the state by the end of that month.

But because of the outbreak of Coronavirus all programmes had to be postponed indefinitely with no hope of holding the same at least for several more months.

But as the term of the current Mayor is going to expire tomorrow,  it has now become absolutely necessary to appoint an Administrator to run the daily and all other operations of KMC as per the law to deal with the present Emergency situation without causing a disruption to any civic activities of the Corporation in and around the city, the official sources said.

Accordingly, it has been decided to appoint Firhad Hakim, who is also the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister besides being the current Mayor, as the first Administrator of this Century old Civic Organisation in the city.

Moreover, it has also been decided to simultaneously appoint all 14  Mayor in Councils in the same posts  under the same law so that they could also continue their work as before without any disruption.

Though it is not yet known how long the KMC would be run by the Administrator and his team, according to official sources at the State Secretariat he is likely to continue at least for a year since it would take some more time to arrange for a free and fair election even after the normalisation of the situation after the withdrawal of the present lockdown.

Meanwhile state BJP  President Dilip Ghosh has severely criticised the West Bengal government decision to appoint the present Mayor for the post of Administrator and demanded that instead a senior non-political person should be considered for the post. It would be a deliberate violation of law taking advantage of the majority of the ruling party in the civic body, he said.