Cuttack, Dec. 29: Mayor Anita Behera today resigned from her post and corporation membership following pressure from the Opposition after her name figured in the list of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act.
Behera submitted her resignation to deputy mayor Ajay Barik, who will now take up charge as the acting mayor.
"I am not guilty. But, I am resigning keeping chief minister and party president Naveen Patnaik's image in mind," said Behera.
"I am not responsible (for my name being included in the list). It has happened without my knowledge. To keep the image of the party and the leadership, I have resigned on moral grounds," she said.
Her resignation came on a day chief minister Naveen Patnaik held a meeting with the district collectors on the need of implementing the food security act properly. Naveen told the district collectors to ensure that the needs of the poor were addressed. Any irregularity will not be tolerated, he said.
The city also witnessed hectic activities throughout the day. While the BJP gheraoed the Cuttack Municipal Corporation office, the Congress staged a demonstration outside the district collector's office. The Congress also lodged a criminal complaint against Behera at Puri Ghat police station.
Earlier, three BJD MLAs - Debashish Samantaray, Pravat Biswal and Chandrasarathi Behera - and the deputy mayor held a closed door meeting with the mayor.
Behera, elected from ward No. 21, had become the Cuttack mayor in February 2014 and was the second woman to occupy the post after the BJP's Nibedita Pradhan in 2003. In 2014, the mayor's post was reserved for a woman from the Scheduled Castes community.
The corporation will have to approve Behera's resignation from the membership before communicating it to the State Election Commission, which will then finalise the by-election schedule.
"Her resignation will be placed before the corporation council, which is likely to be convened shortly," said the civic body's deputy secretary Nirmal Nayak.
Samantaray said: "The mayor has taken an exemplary step. She will be proved innocent. She had not received the ration card. Officers and others engaged in scrutiny and identifying beneficiaries are responsible for the incident. They have shown the mayor eligible for the card."
Municipal commissioner Gyana Das said: "Two persons - senior community organiser Argya Prasad Mohanty and schoolteacher Saroj Pratap - who had been in charge of the survey, were suspended for neglecting their duties. Showcause notices have been issued to a few anganwadi workers."
"How can the mayor deny her involvement as the process to select beneficiaries is done through a three-tier system? The mayor has knowingly grabbed the ration card in clear violation of the norms," said Cuttack Nagar Congress president Mohammad Moquim.
Moquim came down heavily on the state government. "Most of the ration cards have been issued to ruling party loyalists and other influential people in Cuttack. Hence, the Congress is demanding an impartial probe into the incident," he said.
Tension prevailed in front of the civic body headquarters during the protest by the BJP's youth wing. There was a tussle between the BJP youth activists and police during the demonstration, after the activists tried to storm into the headquarters.
"The demonstration was to protest against the issuance of ration card to the mayor, as most of the poor and other backward people have not been included under the scheme in the city," said BJP Yuva Morcha president Biswanath Jyoti.
