Chairman, Vice-Chairman of Rishra Municipality removed on corruption charges

Trinamool Congress on Monday removed the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Rishra Municipality on charges of corruption.

Earlier, the Vice-Chairman Shakir Ali had tendered his resignation to the sub-divisional officer (SDO) Serampore on September 23. On Monday, the chairman Shankar Shaw tendered 

his resignation to the SDO as well.

The SDO accepted both their resignations. The state Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim will hold a meeting on October 2 to select their successors.

There are charges of financial irregularities against the duo. They had also given permission for rampant construction of multi-storeyed buildings.

Councillors of Rishra objected to this and informed senior Trinamool leaders.

The senior leaders cautioned the two, but flouting their instructions they went ahead with their activities.

Plans to set up high-rises on narrow roads were approved by them, in cahoots with the promoters. In areas where there is no infrastructure, tall buildings above 14.5 meters height were allowed to be built.

The situation took such an ugly turn that most of Councillors stopped talking to the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman.

The removal of the due from their respective posts is the result of the party’s measures to impose discipline.

In all the party meetings held after she came to power, party supremo Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly emphasised that those involved in corruption will be thrown out of the party.

She said that the party was not the “forum to consolidate money and party leaders should work for the people and set examples.”

Banerjee reiterated this in the meeting of the party’s policy-making body. She told party leaders that nothing should be done which could tarnish the image of the party.

It may be mentioned that the Councillor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Anindya Chatterjee was arrested and put behind bars on charges of corruption.

Though TMC won 211 seats out of 294 in the 2016 Assembly election, nine ministers lost the polls.

In Rishra, people did not vote for the Trinamool candidate because of rampant corruption in the civic bodies.

The party faced similar a fate in Durgapur. The sitting MLA Apurba Mukhopadhyay could not retain his seat and popular candidate Pradip Majumdar lost in his electoral debut, as people were not happy with the civic authorities because of corruption and highhandedness of some leaders.

While the party was celebrating its victory, Mamata Banerjee took a hard stand and decided to identify those responsible for lowering the image of the party. The removal of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman is a step towards that direction.