An important meeting of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), scheduled for Friday, was called off on Thursday by an official, without the knowledge of the civic body’s chairperson, who presides over the meeting.
The council chamber meeting of councillors was last held on April 30, a day after Calcutta went to vote.
Soon after the meeting was cancelled on Thursday, the KMC secretary, who convenes the meeting, was transferred.
Swapan Kumar Kundu, the secretary of the KMC and a WBCS officer, was transferred to the post of OSD (officer on special duty) state gazetteer, a relatively less significant
position.
The council chamber meeting is convened by the KMC secretary with the approval of the chairperson.
“The monthly council meeting is convened with the approval of the chairperson. I was not informed that it was called off. I am not sure whether all the 144 councillors have been informed of this last-minute decision,” said Mala Roy, KMC chairperson and TMC councillor and MP from south Calcutta.
The KMC election is scheduled for December.
Sources said mayor Firhad Hakim and commissioner Smita Pandey briefly met on Thursday to decide when the next meeting could be convened.
No date was finalised, the source said.
A rule in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) states that at least one council chamber meeting must be held every month.
The council chamber meeting is a monthly event during which councillors raise concerns from their respective areas to the mayor in an open forum.
The councillors highlight civic problems like water supply and the condition of roads. They also submit proposals and raise questions.
Since the Assembly election results were announced on May 4, a significant section of KMC officials has rarely visited the mayor’s office, though he was in his chamber almost every day. The speculation was that most of the office-related work was being approved by the commissioner instead of the mayor, a source in the civic body said.
The mayor and the mayoral council members respond to the proposals and questions during the meeting.
This is not the first time an officially scheduled meeting has been cancelled.
The mayoral council meeting, which was scheduled on May 18, was also called off. The KMC commissioner convenes the meeting.
Sources in the civic body said chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had a meeting at Nabanna on the same day for which the commissioner had to be present, and hence the mayoral council meeting was called off.
No fresh date has been announced so far, said a source in the KMC.
The mayoral council meeting is crucial for any kind of policy decision that the civic body takes.
Any new project above a certain value has to be first approved by the mayoral council before it can be executed.