“It is up to the State Election Commission to decide on the election of the Durgapur Municipal Corporation (DMC); the municipal affairs department has nothing to do with it,” said state municipal affairs and urban development minister Firhad Hakim.
The minister was speaking after a meeting with DMC officials, where he also felicitated 10 members of staff for their excellence in rendering public utility services.
The municipal election of the DMC has remained pending since 2022, which Opposition parties have blamed on the state’s apathy, negligence and ‘deliberate delay’ over the past three years. Since the dissolution of the elected Board in September 2022, the DMC has been run by a five-member Board of Administrators.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier lashed out at the ‘unholy nexus’ between land mafias and certain civic officials, bureaucrats, elected representatives and administrators. Speaking at Nabanna Conference Hall on 25 June 2024, she made it clear that the issue would be addressed before the 2026 Assembly elections so that it would not affect her party’s prospects. The meeting, with the chiefs of Trinamul Congress–run civic bodies, was broadcast live.
The chief minister had noted growing public discontent with the functioning of civic bodies and described the entire five-member DMC Board of Administrators as ‘worthless’. She instructed minister Hakim to replace them immediately.
Fifteen months on from that rebuke, Hakim visited the DMC yesterday and admitted: “I cannot say why they have not yet been replaced.” Regarding the long-overdue election, he shifted responsibility to the Election Commission, stating: “It is not within my remit to decide on the election. The State Election Commission is there to determine that.”