Kolkata, May 25 -- In a fresh wave of resignations, 18 councillors of North Barrackpore Municipality, including the Chairman, and eight councillors of Diamond Harbour Municipality stepped down, while the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) assumed charge as Administrator of Contai Municipality on Monday.
The 23-member North Barrackpore Municipality had three vacant wards following the deaths of councillors earlier. Of the remaining 20 councillors, 18, including Chairman Molay Ghosh, resigned on Monday. While the TMC alleged that civic bodies were being forcibly dissolved after the BJP came to power in Bengal, Ghosh claimed that he and the other councillors stepped down, taking moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the elections.
"Taking moral responsibility for TMC's massive defeat in North Barrackpore, we have resigned. The remaining two councillors are also likely to submit their resignations by tomorrow (Tuesday)," said Ghosh.
On the other hand, eight councillors of the 16-member board of the Diamond Harbour Municipality resigned on Monday, alleging corruption, nepotism and internal conflict within the municipality.
The resigning councillors alleged that they were reduced to mere puppets and had little scope to raise their protests. They also claimed that despite repeatedly informing the party leadership and the state government about corruption, malpractice and other illegal activities, no action was taken.
Significantly, the mass resignations came within 24 hours of the BJP's landslide victory in the Falta Assembly Constituency under the Diamond Harbour Parliamentary Constituency.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the SDO of Contai Sub-Division, Dhumal Pratik Ashok, took over charge of Administrator of Contai Municipality. The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department dissolved the TMC-run board on Friday and handed over administrative responsibility to the Contai SDO.
The move came after 13 TMC councillors, including the vice-chairman, resigned from the 21-member board, creating an administrative deadlock. The former Chairman of Contai Municipality, Suprakash Giri, however, claimed that none of the councillors submitted their resignation to him. On Monday, Giri said that the newly formed state government might have thought that the board under his leadership and is not capable of running the municipality.
"I accept that after the election results, some of us have stopped going to the municipality. However, the public service was affected. We were served a show-cause notice on May 18 for not going to the municipality, and 13 councillors have resigned, which is affecting the public service. I replied on May 20. On May 22, the board was dissolved," said Giri.
Agnimitra Paul, the Urban Development minister has described the resignations as irresponsible, as monsoon is approaching, and this can lead to a crisis.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.