Siliguri, April 28: The Opposition members of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) today walked out of the monthly board meeting to protest against the delay in transferring the civic body’s 14 “added wards” from the Jalpaiguri district administration to the Siliguri subdivision.

The 14 wards were added to the SMC in 1994 after the civic body was upgraded.

“In the March 26 board meeting, we had raised the issue of the added wards,” Trinamul councillor Ranjan Shilsharma said. “We had also demanded a separate administrative office for the wards.”

Currently, over one lakh people of the added wards are forced go to the Jalpaiguri district headquarters, 45km away, for court cases, land registration, trade and driving licenses and other administrative work.

“This is not only a waste of time but expensive as well,” said Krishna Pal, the Opposition leader in the SMC.

Mayor Bikash Ghosh said the problem of the residents of the 14 added wards could not be solved overnight by just including them in Siliguri or forming a separate administrative office for it. “This has to be solved by holding dialogues with the Jalpaiguri district administration and that is what I am doing,” he added.

The Opposition members, claimed that the mayor has ignored their proposal.

When the issue was raised in today’s meeting, SMC chairman Dilip Singh refused permission to discuss saying those measures had already been taken.

Pal replied that they could not expect “much neutral judgement” from a chairman who was surrounded by the mayor and his deputy.

Deputy mayor Munshi Nurul Islam and other ruling councillors protested against Pal’s statement, prompting the Opposition members to walk out.