The Bidhannagar sub-divisional officer took over the administrative charges of Bidhannagar Municipality after the five-year term of the Trinamul-run board ended on Tuesday.
SDO Pawan Kadyan, 29, who hails from Haryana, will now function as the civic body's chairman. He has been the Bidhannagar SDO since last September.
Elections have been delayed because the government wants to form a municipal corporation merging the municipality with Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality and Mahisbathan II gram panchayat.
An official said now that the term of the chairperson and 24 councillors of the municipality, elected in 2010, has ended, they would not hold any administrative powers.
Krishna Chakraborty, the chairperson of the Trinamul-run board, formally handed over charge to Kadyan on Tuesday afternoon. The SDO will be in charge of the municipality till elections are held.
After taking charge, Kadyan met officers and chief engineers of various departments.
A civic official said people would not find it difficult to get their problems addressed. "The change only means that former councillors now have no power over the working of the municipality and its officials."
But residents had a different take on the matter. "Usually, we approach councillors who take up civic problems with municipal officials," a resident said. "But now we will have to go to the municipality office to register our complaints."
Kumar Shankar Sadhu, the general secretary of Salt Lake Welfare Association, said: "We used to call up councillors if we had any problem. Now, for every small matter we will have to go to the municipality.... There are so many senior citizens staying alone. What will they do?"
The government announced its decision to form a corporation in a notification in the The Kolkata Gazette, published on April 1.
According to the notification, the combined areas of Salt Lake, Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality and Mahisbathan II gram panchayat (65.5sq km) fulfilled one of the criteria to form a municipal corporation. The headquarters of the proposed corporation would be Salt Lake.
The Barasat SDO is in charge of Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality whose Left-run board had been dissolved two years ago after its term ended.
A state secretariat official said there wasn't much difference in the working of a municipality and a corporation except that a corporation received more funds and had a larger jurisdiction under it than a municipality.
A municipality gets state funds but a corporation gets central funds as well.
A chairman and councillors run a municipality whereas a corporation is run by a mayor.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee first announced the decision to turn Bidhannagar Municipality into a corporation on January 20, 2012, while inaugurating the Bidhannagar and Barrackpore commissionerates at a programme in Lake Town.
Besides Salt Lake and Rajarhat-Gopalpur, five more municipalities are awaiting elections - Raniganj, Jamuria, Asansol and Kulti in Burdwan and Bally in Howrah. The government wants to convert them into corporations before going to the polls.
Pranay Roy of Calcutta had filed a PIL against this decision in Calcutta High Court earlier this year. On April 16 the court ruled in his favour, directing the government to complete the polls within June 16.
The state moved the Supreme Court, challenging the decision. On May 25, the court ruled in the government's favour, asking it to complete the conversion process by June 30 and hold elections at the earliest.
The state election commission later said the new corporations would require delimitation, a process which takes around three months. By then it would be time for Durga puja, Diwali and other festivities, during which elections are not held as a matter of central policy.
"Hence, elections are unlikely to take place before November, which is exactly what the government wants," a state secretariat source said.
