State dissolves BMC board, appoints admin; KMC likely to follow

Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) civic board was dissolved on Saturday and municipal commissioner Ravi Agarwal took charge as the administrator. There are indications that Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will also get an administrator next week to run the civic body in the absence of a mayor and his council after Firhad Hakim resigned from the mayoral post on Friday.

“BMC commissioner Ravi Agarwal is now the administrator of the civic body,” Bidhannagar MLA Sharadwat Mukherjee told TOI on Saturday evening.

Additional chief secretary Khalil Ahmed issued the order for the BMC administrator, announcing the dissolution of the civic board with immediate effect under Subsection (1) of Section 60 of the West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act, 2006. The BMC commissioner’s appointment as an administrator is for a period not exceeding six months or until new councillors are elected, , whichever is earlier.

The Trinamool-run BMC was formed in 2015 when the earlier Bidhannagar municipality was upgraded to a municipal corporation. The previous Rajarhat Gopalpur municipality was dissolved and that entire area was added to Salt Lake to form the BMC civic body.

BMC has been facing a crisis ever since the BJP formed the new govt in Bengal, with four out of its 41 councillors being arrested on different charges, including extortion and intimidation. Apprehensive, a few other councillors have moved court to seek interim protection against arrest. Amid such a situation, Krishna Chakraborty on Thursday resigned from the BMC mayor’s post, citing personal reasons. Chakraborty later said with most of the functioning of the civic body being stalled she could not carry out the day-to-day work properly. She said she felt it was increasingly becoming difficult to provide civic services in the changed circumstances and that she did not feel comfortable continuing as the BMC mayor.

At KMC, too, the MIC automatically dissolved after Hakim’s resignation from the mayor’s post. An administrator is likely to be appointed to take charge of the civic body’s functioning till civic elections are held.

According to a KMC official, after Hakim’s resignation, the municipal commissioner, Smita Pandey, held marathon meetings with KMC officials, especially senior legal officers, to work out a formula to keep the civic body running in the absence of the mayor. “Though in the absence of a mayor, the deputy mayor can take charge for the time being, going by the mood of the state administration, an administrator is likely to take charge of KMC early next week,” said the official on Saturday.

Another official at KMC said with monsoon being around the corner, the state was likely to be swift in appointing an administrator for the KMC and that Pandey could be assigned the role.

A letter from the state municipal affairs department to the KMC municipal commissioner on Friday fuelled the speculation about the appointment of an administrator, said an official. But a Trinamool functionary said the party still being in the majority in the KMC, if the central leadership felt they could field a new mayor to replace the outgoing mayor.