Act amendment soon for non-elected mayor

KOLKATA : The Mamata Banerjee government will bring an amendment to the KMC Act in the state assembly on Thursday. The idea is to make it possible for persons who are not councillors to get elected mayor and

deputy mayor

, which is not permitted under the existing act.


The state cabinet, in its meeting on Wednesday, gave its go-ahead to the draft bill, sending out signals that Trinamool was keeping the option open for nominating persons from outside as mayor and deputy mayor. The draft amendment bill provides for such an arrangement with a rider that the person has to get elected a KMC ward within six months of the date of appointment as mayor or deputy mayor.

Prior to 1980, there was a provision for the government to nominate an alderman instead of elected councillors. Sovan Chatterjee’s predecessor in the KMC, Kamal Bose, was alderman made mayor by the Jyoti Basu government.

Section 6 of the KMC Act, 1980, provides that elected members of the corporation shall elect the mayor and deputy mayor from among themselves. Under the existing act, no person other than elected councillors is eligible to get elected to the two posts. The new bill doesn’t propose to remove this clause but adds another section that allows a person from outside to become mayor.

Speculation was rife that the chief minister was going to nominate someone from her cabinet — Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim or Subrata Mukherjee — as mayor and get the nominated mayor elected from the already announced KMC bypolls at ward 117, following the demise of sitting Congress councillor Sailen Dasgupta. But that is not happening because Trinamool has already fielded Trinamool mayor-incouncil member Tarak Singh’s son, Amit Singh, from that ward. However, Trinamool’s move to bring an amendment to the KMC Act doesn’t set to rest such an option.

The chief minister has called a meeting of the Trinamool Municipal Party on Thursday to decide on the next mayor. The purpose of the meeting is to decide the name ahead of the house meeting to elect mayor in a bid to avoid internal disputes. According to procedure, the KMC chairperson has to call a meeting of the house within 10 days from the date of announcement to elect the new mayor.

The entire move has to be done quickly because the mayor-in-council ceases to exist when the mayor vacates office. “The entire council stands dissolved once the mayor vacates his office because the mayor-in-council is nominated by the mayor,” said a KMC official.