CUTTACK: Residents of ward nos 21 and 5 of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) are a disgruntled lot as development activities and implementation of welfare programmes continue to elude the two localities following the death of their respective corporators and non-filling of the said posts for a long time.
As per sources, the corporator of ward no 21 Ashok Sharma died in October last year but the post continues to remain vacant even after over a year. In such a situation, there is no public representative to hear grievances and raise them before the civic body for resolution. More so, no by-election has been conducted to fill up the post as yet, which has stalled development activities and programme implementation in the area.
Similar situation prevails in ward no 5 following death of the corporator Priyambada Swain in October this year. As per norms, after death of a public representative, by-election should be conducted within six months for filling up the vacant post. However, both the corporator posts are yet to be filled up.
“We have been facing several problems on a daily basis but they aren’t being addressed as there is no one to represent our wards after death of our corporators. There is no one to hear our grievances and take them up during the council meeting for redressal,” said some residents of the two wards further questioning why the government is not taking steps to fill up the vacant corporator posts.
Mayor Subhash Singh said the civic body had already apprised the state government about the vacancy soon after the death of the two corporators.
“It is up to the government to conduct by-election for filling up the posts,” he added.