SAMBALPUR: Urban centres across the State are abuzz with political activities ahead of the local body polls but an unusual calms prevails in Sambalpur city where the elections will not be held on March 24.
Following a direction from the Orissa High Court (HC) in 2015, elections to the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) have been put on hold. The election delay, however, has not gone down well with the opposition political parties which have accused the State government of deliberately adopting a dilly-dallying approach in this regard.
Former Sambalpur district Congress committee (DCC) president Sureswar Mishra alleged that the State government is not serious about holding SMC elections.
“As per the direction of the Supreme Court, stay orders issued by any court including the HC automatically expires within six months and an extension can be given only after reviewing the case. By delaying the ULB elections here, the government is trying to centralise power and sabotage the democratic system,” he claimed.
Due to the delay in holding elections, residents of Sambalpur City are yet to get the opportunity to elect their representatives nearly eight years after the formation of SMC.
Senior BJP leader and Sambalpur MLA Jayanarayan Mishra said in absence of any representative, the concerns of people have remained unheard. Besides, corrupt practices are rampant as affairs of the urban local body (ULB) are being run by officials.
“A number of development works has also come to a standstill in absence of proper administrators. It is high time the State government vacated the stay and held ULB polls in SMC,” he said.
Ruling BJD leader and former Sambalpur MLA Raseswari Panigrahi said, “We too want elections to be held at the earliest so that people are able to elect their representatives. However, the matter is in the High Court. The elections cannot be held until the stay is vacated. I am hopeful that a decision in this regard will come out soon.”
In 2014, the Sambalpur municipality was upgraded to a corporation comprising Hirakud and Burla NACs besides the seven gram panchayats of Dhankauda and five of Maneswar block. However, a writ petition was filed by one Ajay Kumar Mohanty, a resident of Burla, in the HC challenging the notification issued by the State government on delimitation of wards and reservation of seats.
Hearing Mohanty’s petition, the HC directed the State government to stop the process for elections to SMC.