SAMBALPUR: While the general elections round the corner, the failure to hold the Urban Local Body (ULB) elections in Sambalpur since last 11 years has left the residents to grapple with an array of civic issues.
The last election to the erstwhile municipality was held in 2008. Reportedly, the Sambalpur Municipality was upgraded to a Municipal Corporation in 2014 after including Hirakud NAC and Burla NAC besides seven Gram Panchayats (GP) of Dhankauda block and five GPs of Maneswar block under its jurisdiction.
However, following the development, a writ petition was filed by a resident of Ward 4 of Burla, Ajay Kumar Mohanty over delimitation of wards and seat reservation. Subsequently, hearing Mohanty’s petition challenging the notification issued by the state government, the Orissa High Court directed to stop the process for elections to the SMC in 2015. And since then, the election in the urban body has been pending. While the municipal elections cannot be held anytime before the general polls, the residents have now become uncertain about the probability of civic polls anytime soon.
On the other hand, opposition parties have expressed discontentment and accused the state government of deliberately adopting dilly-dallying attitude towards the election in Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC).
BJP leader and former advisor of the BJD District Committee, Pramod Ratha said, “The SMC is being completely run and managed by administrative officers, who are beyond the reach of common public. In absence of corporators as representatives, the public is facing a lot of hassles in availing basic facilities.”
If the matter is subjudice, it is the responsibility of the state government to appear before the High Court and settle the issue , he stated alleging, the state government has delayed it so far due to the fear of losing the ULB.
Similarly, senior Congress leader, Aswini Guru said, it is shameful that even after around a decade since Sambalpur ULB was upgraded to Municipal Corporation, it has been running without a public representative. “The Congress would take up formation of an elected body for SMC as a major issue on priority basis,” he assured.