WB Municipal Bill 2016 passed

The state government will take some more time to hold election in newly formed municipalities as their infrastructure is not yet ready, Firhad Hakim, urban development and municipal affairs minister said in the Assembly on Friday.

The West Bengal Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed in the Assembly on Friday. The Bill gives the power to the state government to extend the terms of administrator or board of administrators in extremely necessary cases in the newly constituted municipal areas.

Opposing the Bill, Apurba Sarkar of Congress said people were facing problem in the municipalities 

were being run by administrators. People of the area often require certificates from the people’s representatives for various purpose and the administrators were not the competent persons to issue such certificates. He said many students need character certificate for their admission in schools and colleges from the people’s representatives and they were worst affected as the certificates issued by the administrators were not accepted by the school or college authorities.

Anisur Rahaman of CPI(M) said this was another tactics to keep the municipalities under control by the Trinamool Congress led government that had murdered democracy.

Supporting the Bill, Hakim said in the newly set up municipalities the infrastructure was not yet ready as no work could be carried out after election dates were announced. The new government was set up on May 27. He said elections would be held in all of them once the infrastructure which includes the chairman in council’s room, conference room, sitting room for the councilors etc. He said if elections were held in these municipalities, Trinamool would win in all of them but if the elections were held after proper infrastructure was set up then, they would start functioning once the board was formed. Abdul Mannan, leader of the opposition urged Hakim to ensure that the infrastructure was ready within six months.