BHUBANESWAR: Even as the urban local bodies have formed their councils, the election laws empowering the State government to dismiss a directly elected mayor of Municipal Corporation or chairperson of municipality and notified area council (NAC) have run into controversy with Opposition political parties alleging they will be misused by the ruling party.
The power will be brought into effect where the council majority is with the ruling BJD and the chairperson belongs to Opposition, they alleged.
Of the 106 civic bodies, the BJP has 16 chairpersons, Congress seven and independents nine. The law provides that a resolution passed/supported by not less than two third of the total number of elected council is enough for the government to remove a chairman or mayor. The person holding the office of mayor or chairperson shall be deemed to have vacated such office with effect from the date the resolution was passed and the same was published in the official gazette.
The apprehension of the Opposition is not without basis as it has happened in the past. In 1992, present BJP MP from Bargarh Suresh Pujari was directly elected to the post of chairman of Sambalpur Municipality as an independent candidate. The then ruling Janata Dal was in majority and the Congress had the second highest number of seats in the council.
The two parties moved a no-confidence motion against Pujari just after completion of the mandatory two year period. He was removed from the post of chairman with two-third members recording their lack of confidence on him.
“Chances of dismissal of three mayors appear thin as the BJD has majority in all the three municipal corporations, but there is every possibility that the State government may encourage undemocratic process to remove the chairpersons from Opposition in those municipalities or NACs where the BJD is in majority,” Pujari said.
The BJP parliamentarian said he had then questioned the legality of his removal when he was directly elected by the voters of the municipality. Since the members of the council had not elected him as chairman, they had no right under the law to remove him.
Senior Congress leader and former Finance minister Panchanan Kanungo, however, said the government always has the power to remove a directly elected mayor or chairperson.
“It is to be seen if the government is following the due process of law in letter and spirit or bending the rules to oust the chairman on political grounds,” he said adding, there should have a provision to recall as the civic bodies chiefs are directly elected by the people.