All not quiet: Patna Municipal Corporation

Patna, Sept. 4: The fragile relationship between the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner and councillors is all set to spill over to the brittle streets maintained by the civic body.

The councillors have decided to take out demonstrations against the PMC commissioner, Divesh Sehara, after he played truant yesterday in the empowered standing committee meeting. The seven-member panel had given a 10-day ultimatum to the commissioner during its last meeting on August 24, asking him to expedite various civic projects and to present a report on their progress status in yesterday’s meeting. But Sehara did not turn up, leaving the councillors seething in anger.

Deputy mayor Vinay Kumar Pappu said: “This is not for the first time that the commissioner has done something like this. We are tired of his continued defiance of elected representatives in the corporation. He is making fun of democracy and now we will hit the streets to draw the attention of those sitting in the government.”

Mayor Afzal Imam accused the senior functionaries in the government of encouraging the “defiant behaviour by the commissioner”.

“This government is deliberately trying to handicap the urban local bodies. The commissioner was appointed without consultation with the empowered standing committee. On top of it, the commissioner has absolutely no regard for the decisions taken in the corporation board and the empowered standing committee meetings. Most of the times, he does not even turn up in the meetings. Things have become so unbearable that we feel absolutely hopeless and see no other way than going out on streets with our demands,” Imam said.

The civic body councillors have often accused Sehara of high-handedness and arbitrary attitude. They also alleged that he had been deliberately delaying projects because he was not interested in carrying out work of public interest. Pappu said ward development works under three different schemes are pending for several months. The works under these projects include maintenance of drains, road construction and installation of streetlights.

“We had asked the commissioner to expedite the works and to submit a report. But neither did he turn up for the meeting nor did he designate any of his subordinates to represent him,” the deputy mayor added. Sehara was not available for comments.

In July this year, the corporation board passed a resolution to remove Sehara from the chair. After the state government rejected the recommendation on the ground that no such resolution can be passed till the commissioner completed one year in the chair, the mayor and deputy mayor had approached Patna High Court challenging the petition. The court, however, quashed the petition and the duo are now contemplating to move the Supreme Court.