WB govt issues fresh notification on appointment of BOA of SMC

The West Bengal government on Saturday issued a fresh notification removing the Trinamool Congress councillors from the Board of Administrators of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC)as demanded by Mayor Asok Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya had earlier in the day said he would ake up the post of chairman of board of administrators of SMC only if there are no TMC councillors in the board.

The five-year term of the civic body would end on May 17 West Bengal Minister Goutam Dev said as demanded by Bhattacharya, the government issued a fresh notification removing five Trinamool Congress councillors from the board which will only comprise of only elected left civic representatives "as our priority remains to fight the Covid-19 pandemic now in a united manner and not doing politics." Bhattacharya told reporters as the new order took note of his demand for removing the name of opposition councillors and he will take over as the Chairman of the board which will administer the responsibility from Sunday. "Our contention was when the board of administrators at TMC-controlled Kolkata Municipal Corporation did not comprise any opposition councillors, why should there be opposition representatives in the left-run SMC board. It is welcome that finally the ruling party understood the discrepancy and corrected it," he said.

The state government on Friday issued the first notification appointing a 12-member board of administrators for SMC with seven members from the Left parties, including chairman Asok Bhattacharya and five from the Trinamool Congress. In the first week of May, the West Bengal government appointed a board of administrators for running the KMC as the five-year term of the elected body was slated to expire on May 7.

Mayor Firhad Hakim was made chairman of the board of administrators. The opposition Congress, BJP and Left had slammed the move. Elections to several civic bodies of the state, including the SMC and KMC have been postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Majority of the members of the SMC belong to the Left parties..

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