CHENNAI: Five weeks after doing away with direct election of Mayors for municipal corporations, the State government on Monday introduced a Bill in the State Assembly to end direct election of chairmen of municipalities and town panchayats too.
Introducing the Bill in the House, Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani said at present, election to the councils of the urban local bodies were conducted on party basis and the chairmen were elected directly. In certain circumstances, the chairmen could not get the cooperation of councillors and vice versa and thereby, there had been impediments in the proceedings of councils and to arrive at consensus in passing resolutions to provide civic services to the public, as both the chairmen and councillors were elected directly.
“Having felt the difficulties faced by the Councils of the Municipal Corporations, the Tamil Nadu Municipal Corporation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2016 was enacted to enable the councillors to elect a councillor from among themselves as Mayor for the Municipal Corporation. As such, in order to have a uniform election procedure in all the urban local bodies in the State, the government has decided to elect the chairmen of municipalities and town panchayats also indirectly by the councillors or members from among themselves”, the Minister added.
On June 23, the State Assembly adopted the Bill to do away with the practice of direct election of Mayors amidst opposition from the DMK and its allies Congress and IUML.