Govt seeks legal opinion as term of 91 urban local bodies nears completion

Kolkata: The term of as many as 91 urban local bodies in the state including that of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is ending on different dates within the month of May.

The state government is seeking legal opinion to ensure that the day to day civic services can be addressed with the same professionalism and efficiency as it has been during the tenure of the respective civic boards. The municipal elections in the state that was scheduled to be held in the month of April- May has now been postponed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the state Election Commission is yet to take any decision regarding civic polls considering the pre-sent situation.

"We are yet to take any final decision about the functioning of these municipalities. We are ex-amining all the legal provisions," said a senior official of state Municipal Affairs department.

The Mamata Banerjee government has appointed administrators as per provisions of the law in 18 urban local bodies after the end of their respective terms. This has been the practice in case of municipalities as well as the municipal corporations. The state has spoken with the district admin-istration and has appointed an officer as an administrator who can effectively handle the civic issues in each of these ULBs.

The tenure of the present board of KMC is ending on May 7. The boards of almost all the munic-ipalities located in the suburbs of Kolkata are ending in this month. The tenure of Baranagar Mu-nicipality is ending on May 18, that of Kamarhati is ending on May 19, North Dum Dum on May 24, South Dum Dum on May 21, Dum Dum on May 21, New Barrackpore on May 20, Ba-rasat on May 21, Rajpur – Sonarpur on May 20, Baruipur on May 14, Budge Budge on May 19.

The municipal areas of North 24-Parganas that have witnessed sporadic violence after the Lok Sabha polls like Bhatpara and Titagarh municipality are also ending its five-year tenure on May 18 and 19 respectively.

Most municipalities in Hooghly district is also completing its five-year term this month itself. Sreerampore on May 28, Rishra on May 21, Uttarpara- Kotwan on May 19, Konnagar on May 21, Tarakeshwar on May 27 etc. Among the ULBs in North Bengal, the board of Siliguri Munic-ipal Corporation is ending on May 17, while that of Jalpaiguri municipality is also ending this month.

On being asked whether the Mayor can be appointed as the administrator of a municipal corpora-tion a senior official of the Municipal Affairs department said there is no clear mention of the fact about who can act as an administrator. "The state is seeking the opinion of the legal depart-ment and constitutional experts in this matter," he added.

The tenure of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and Asansol Municipal Corporation will, how-ever, end a few months later on October 15 this year.