The decision to keep the Siliguri and Jalpaiguri civic chiefs out of the development authority for the two towns has not gone down well with at least one of them.
Only one Congress representative is on the 12-member board which has at least five Trinamul leaders.
The Congress chairperson of the Jalpaiguri municipality, Mohan Bose, has questioned how he and Siliguri mayor Gangotri Datta could have been left out of the board of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority. The civic chiefs have been on the SJDA board since it was first formed in 1980.
Today, SJDA chairperson and Siliguri MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya announced that a 12-member board including him and the chief executive officer of the development authority as member-secretary has been formed.
"We were told about the formation of the new SJDA board by the principal secretary of state urban development department on September 9. The new members would be informed about their selection so that they can carry out necessary duties and responsibilities in the future days," Bhattacharya said.
The other 10 members on the board are the district magistrates of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, the principal secretary of the urban development department, the divisional commissioner of Jalpaiguri, the MLAs of Matigara-Naxalbari and Rajganj Shankar Malakar and Khageswar Roy, Siliguri deputy mayor Ranjan Silsharma and Trinamul leaders Jyotsna Agarwal and Chandan Bhowmik. The 12th member is Nantu Saha, SJDA chairperson said, but could not furnish details on him.
"As far as my knowledge goes, there are laid down rules that the civic chiefs of towns which come within the ambit of the development authority should be members. Any change in the composition of the board has to be made through a gazette notification and till date, we do not have information of any such notification," said Bose. The reaction from Gangotri was mild. "We cannot comment on the SJDA board," she said.
Malakar is the only Congress member on the board. Asked why the MLA and MP of Jalpaiguri and the sabhadhipatis of Siliguri mahakuma parishad and Jalpaiguri zilla parishad were left out, Bhattacharya said: "A board has been formed and it would be wrong to interpret its composition in terms of political colours."
But many pointed out that when the SJDA was under the Left Front, Congress leaders like Mohan Bose and Gangotri had been on the board. "This time Jalpaiguri MLA Sukhbilash Burma, Alipurduar MLA Debprasad Roy, Phansidewa MLA Sunil Tirkey have been left out. All of them are from the Congress, not even from the Left. Last time, Debprasad Roy, Mohan Bose, Gangotri Datta were all on the board despite being from the Opposition party," said a source.
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