Patna, May 12: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) mayor has played a master stroke to stall the move of ward councillors to bring a no-confidence mot- ion against him and the deputy mayor.
Mayor Afzal Imam said in a news meet in the capital today that there was no provision of bringing no-confidence motion against mayor and deputy mayor within two years of their election to the posts.
In letters sent to the mayor, PMC commissioner and district magistrate, dissatisfied councillors had demanded that a meeting be called to propose a resolution for the removal of the chief councillor and his deputy. Sources said that about 30 ward councillors are in favour of removing the duo, accusing them of incompetence.
“As per Section 25 of the Bihar Municipal Act, chief councillor and deputy chief councillor may be rem- oved from the office thro- ugh a no-confidence motion given by a majority of councillors but not before they complete two years in office. Vinay Kumar Pappu and I joined as mayor and deputy mayor respectively last year after previous mayor and deputy mayor were removed from the chairs through no-trust vote. The urban development department had then issued a letter saying that Section 25 will be applied for second set of persons on the chairs. Hence, the meeting to discuss the no-trust vote cannot be called,” Imam told mediapersons.
He also said that as only 30 out of 72 councillors had signed on the letter seeking the no-trust meeting; it was obvious that the majority was with Imam and Pappu.
According to sources, Imam and Pappu had been elected after the removal of previous mayor Sanjay Kumar and deputy mayor Santosh Mehta in 2010.
That was the only occasion in the history of Patna Municipal Corporation when the mayor and his deputy were removed through no-trust vote.
Meanwhile, many councilors alleged that that the duo had been a complete failure as heads of elected wing of Patna Municipal Corporation and it was because of their incompetence that the plans to form ward committees in the wards, solutions to water crisis, garbage collection and waste management could never get executed.
