Political

No sign of election, but symptoms of autocracy marks prominence more with reinstatement of the old wine once termed as 'useless substances' by the Bengal Chief Minister herself.

 

The Bengal Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department today reassigned former Mayor  Anindita Mukherjee as the Chairperson of the two members Board of Administrators of the Durgapur Municipal Corporation. 

 

Anindita was assigned as the Mayor of the DMC after the uncalled for expulsion of former Mayor Dilip Agasty - a retired bureaucrat in August 2022. The same Anindita was assigned to head the five-member  Board of Administrators as the Chairperson when the tenure of the DMC's elected board expired.

 

Four others included in the Board  were - Amitabha Banerjee, Rakhi Tewari, Dipankar Laha and Dharmendra Yadav. Earlier this year, perturbed with the inefficiency, callous mishandling and alleged nepotism, the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, at a meeting in Kolkata with the civic body heads, had expressed her absolute disgust about the functioning of the DMC and had termed the five member Board constituents as 'useless substances'. She said: "The entire 'six' except one in the Board were useless and bogus," and instructed the Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim to alter them. After months of the 'public insult' by the Chief Minister, the Board members however continued to rule and enjoy perks and allowances, surprisingly. Minister Firhad Hakim, on the day of his visit to DMC however had claimed that the matter was handled by the Chief Minister herself and he had nothing to do with that. The Board, meanwhile was criticised for seamlessly swinging between the 'good and the evil.' 

 

The static matter witnessed a little adverse motion last week when Amitabha Banerjee suddenly was demoted from the post of Deputy Chairman of the Board and Dharmendra yadav was elevated to the post on 31 October. 

 

Now, Amitabha and two others - Dipankar, Rakhi were absolutely discarded from the Board leaving a shock wave in the town. Banerjee said: "I had no idea - why I was discarded and what went wrong. Ask the Chamber of Commerce of the town that owns the TMC as it's top storied members are the key mentors of the party!" Mukherjee, who once was 'hopeless' after CM tagged her Board as callous, remained tight-lipped on the fresh development today.

 

"This party is no more a people's party. Mamata Banerjee herself has reduced the TMC to a party of the Bania class (traders). She doesn't bother to listen to the bleeding cry of the dying industries of Durgapur and it's distressed people here, instead, she's pampered by some greedy traders - the henchmen of a coterie surrounding her today," said Congress's West Burdwan district president Debesh Chakranorty. He alleged: "The CBI or ED should investigate the properties of the Board of Administrators and some businessmen and estimate how they have gained wealth, property in just two years." 

 

It was learnt from a reliable source that the Municipal Affairs department may soon include some new 'apolitical' faces to help expansion of the old wine bottle.