Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had non-elected ward representatives in the past, once in 2021, when elections could not be held because of Covid, and earlier in the 1970s, when the state superseded the corporation, former councillors and govt officials said.Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said the state govt would appoint coordinators for all the 209 wards of KMC after Nov 30.Appointing coordinators was not without precedent, though circumstances might differ, said political observers. “As a party, we want elections to be held and elected councillors to highlight citizens’ problems. But the CPM, in cahoots with Trinamool, is trying to derail this plan. Civic services will suffer if there is no elected councillor,” said Debjit Sarkar, BJP’s chief spokesperson in Bengal.Former mayor and CPM senior Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya apprehended that the state would pack KMC with its own people if coordinators were appointed. “But they can appoint coordinators in only 144 wards and not 209. The delimitation of KMC wards is under challenge and till a decision us is taken, the state cannot have coordinators for the revised 209 wards,” he said.In 2020, when coordinators were last appointed in KMC, fresh civic elections were due in May but by then, the Covid lockdown was announced and conducting an election was not feasible amid a pandemic. “The councillors, whose terms ended in May that year, were made coordinators. They had no power to take policy decisions and as coordinators, they could no longer use the fund allotted to councillors,” said a former councillor, who was made a coordinator in 2020. At that time, the mayoral council was been appointed as the board of administrators, headed by Firhad Hakim as its chairperson. KMC elections were finally held in Dec 2021.Even 2020 was not without a precedent. KMC’s website says “the Corporation was superseded by the State Government in 1972”. A bureaucrat officer said the Siddhartha Shankar Ray govt superseded many local bodies. Between 1972 and 1985, the corporation was run by administrators, mostly bureaucrats. Shyam Sundar Gupta of Forward Bloc was the last mayor before the KMC board was superseded.A bureaucrat said the 1972 action was long before the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 gave constitutional status to panchayats and urban local bodies like municipal corporations.KMC’s website says administrators ruled the institution “during the long interlude of 13 years”. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act of 1980, which came into effect in Jan 1984, shaped a truly autonomous KMC, directly responsible to the electorate, KMC’s website says. CPM’s Kamal Basu was the first mayor when elected representatives again got charge of KMC in July 1985.
