Trinamul drops administrator hint

Siliguri, June 11: Trinamul would request the state government to dissolve the Siliguri Municipal Corporation board and appoint an administrator as civic services were being hampered because of the Congress’s boycott of monthly board meetings, sources in the ruling party said today. The Congress abstained from the last two monthly board meetings as they had been convened by chairman Nantu Paul who had left the party and joined Trinamul. The sessions couldn’t be held because of lack of quorum as Left Front councillors were also absent along with those from the Congress. Neither the Left nor the Congress accepts Paul as the civic chairman. Trinamul insiders said the councillors of the party would meet municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and seek the dissolution of the Congress-run board. “There is no point in letting the Congress run a minority board. The civic services are being affected as monthly board meetings are not being held. As we have councillors at the SMC and they face questions from the public regarding the state of affairs, Trinamul also has a responsibility to address their grievances. So, we decided to approach the minister and request him to dissolve the board and depute an administrator. Such a step, we believe, would improve civic services,” said a Trinamul source. According to Section 60 of the Corporation Act, the state government has the power to dissolve a civic board for non-performance and depute a person or persons of its choice to run the body. Any decision taken at a meeting of members mayor-in-council on civic services have to be approved by the board. The source said the mayor, deputy mayor and the MMICs were availing themselves of free transport and cellphone facilities without doing any work. Krishna Pal, a Trinamul councillor and the secretary general of the party’s Darjeeling district committee, said today that the Trinamul councillors would meet Hakim. “We, the Trinamul councillors, will talk to Firhad Hakim and request him to sort out the present stalemate at the SMC by taking appropriate steps so that civic services, which are in the worst condition, can be improved.” He refused comment when asked if the Trinamul councillors would request the minister to dissolve the board. Mayor Gangotri Datta said: “Trinamul’s decision to approach the state municipal affairs department for the dissolution of the board is a political one. We have nothing to say. The civic services are regular and up to the mark across Siliguri.”