PMC councillors protest against the commissioner for walking out of the civic body’s board meeting, in front of SK Memorial Hall in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 7: Accusing councillors of misbehaving with him, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Divesh Sehara today walked out of the civic body’s board meeting.

The meeting — convened after two months — started at 2pm. But it was soon disrupted, when Baleshwar Singh, the councillor of ward number 18, asked Singh why he was delaying the release of ward development funds. Each of the 72 wards of the PMC is entitled to Rs 15 lakh on this head.

An agitated Singh approached Sehara’s chair pointing his finger at him demanded an answer to his query.

In reply, Sehara said: “If councillors talk to me like this, I will not attend the meeting.” Then, he made his way towards the exit.

A group of councillors tried to prevent him but in vain. The commissioner got into his official car parked near the entrance of the meeting venue, Sri Krishna Memorial Hall, and left.

The enraged councillors later demanded disciplinary action against the commissioner, as he had completely disregarded the elected representatives of the civic body.

“The attitude of the commissioner shows how the bureaucracy dominates this government and how they are bent on making local bodies completely defunct,” said Sanjay Kumar Singh, another councillor.

Sehara was unavailable for comment.

The corporation board meeting was convened today to discuss the issue of A2Z Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd — the agency hired in January, 2010 by the civic body to cart away garbage from certain parts the state capital. The company, however, suspended its services on July 20 this year, as the civic body refused to clear its dues over allegation of breach of contract and over-billing.

Around Rs 7.6 crore is due to the Gurgaon-based company. The state urban development department has constituted a committee to look into the pending bills of A2Z Infrastructure Pvt. Limited.

The tussle between councillors and the commissioner is nothing new. The peoples’ representatives even tried to remove Sehara from the chair by passing a resolution against him. The state government, however, did not implement the board’s recommendation on the grounds that such a resolution cannot be passed before the commissioner completes a year in office.

Councillors have often accused Sehara of high-handedness and arbitrary attitude. They also alleged that he has been deliberately delaying the works of the civic body.

After Sehara left today, the councillors gathered at the Mauryalok office of PMC to discuss their future course of action. Later, they met the chief secretary and the principal secretary of the state urban development department.

“We are not happy with the way Sehara has been discharging his duties as the PMC chief. He does not come to meetings, does not give time to councillors or the public, and is not interested in work. Today, he crossed all limits by running away from the meeting. The councillors sometimes get carried away because of administrative failure to carry out civic works. No one, however, was misbehaving with him,” said mayor Afzal Imam.