Gaya mayor removed

GAYA: In a major development, Magadh division commissioner K P Ramaiah, on Monday ordered the removal of Gaya mayor Lalita Devi and zila parishad chief Shobha Sinha from their respective posts and recommended the termination of even their membership of the municipal and Panchayat Raj bodies.
Exercising the judicial powers vested in him, the commissioner ordered the removal of these office holders in accordance with the provisions of Section 25(5) of the Municipal Act and Section 75(5) of the Panchayati Raj Act.
The order was passed on the basis of case instituted against the mayor and the zila parishad chief in the court of the Magadh division commissioner. Both Devi and Sinha were accused of illegal usurpation of power, misuse of authority, tampering of records, taking arbitrary and unlawful decisions and non-constitution of statutory bodies.
The allegations against the mayor included the interference of her husband Bachchu Yadav in the functioning of mayor's office and non-observation of the court's directive with regard to the conduct of the meetings and record keeping.
The divisional commissioner passed the removal order on two separate petitions filed by corporator, ward no. 38, Suman Singh against Lalita Devi and Anuj Kumar Singh against Sinha.
The judgement passed by the commissioner also refers to the alleged criminal background of Bachchu who is alleged to be involved in dozens of serious criminal cases, including murder, kidnapping and other serious offences.
The other allegations against the mayor included non-compliance of the resolution to remove Pankaj Kumar, an assistant engineer of the corporation from his post, non-observance of the meeting schedule and failure to get the municipal budget passed within the stipulated time limit thereby making the corporation vulnerable to an avoidable financial crisis.Negligence of official duty and erratic behaviour during meetings are some of the other charges levelled against the mayor. Videographic evidence was also produced to substantiate some of the charges against the mayor.