Speaker flays Guv for sitting over Bill to bifurcate HMC

kolkata: Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee was critical of Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for delaying in giving assent to the bifurcation of the Howrah Municipal Corporation bill, accusing the Raj Bhavan occupant of sitting over it.

The Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which proposes to separate Bally Municipality from the jurisdiction of the HMC, was passed by the state Assembly on November 17, 2021. "The Howrah bill was sent to the Governor a long time back after it was passed in the state assembly.," Banerjee said.

"But we have not received any response from Raj Bhavan. He (the Governor) will either give his accent or send recommendations if any. He can also uphold the same and send it to the President of India. He only knows what he is doing with the Bill," Banerjee said.

The Speaker reiterated that the assembly is in the dark regarding the fate of the Bill. "He comes to the assembly, holds a press meet standing in the lobby and claims that no Bill is pending with him. But till date, the assembly has received no response in this connection.

Bills are sent to the Governor for his necessary nod from the assembly so the reply should first be here itself. But we know nothing regarding the same," he added.

Elections in the 108 municipalities and 6 municipal corporations have already been conducted but elections in Howrah and Bally have not been held as the

Governor has not given his nod to the Bill. Elections in Howrah Municipal Corporation have been pending since 2018.

The municipal work is being done through the Board of Administrators.