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Silchar, Dec 9: Former MP and ex-chairperson of Silchar Municipal Board Sushmita Dev has raised questions on the delay in the upgradation of the civic board into the proposed corporation.
In a memorandum to the Minister of Urban Development Ashok Singhal sent on Friday, Dev mentioned that the letter is being sent under compelling circumstances especially due to the fact the Silchar Civic Board, one of the prestigious urban local bodies in the state and also a critical one continuous to run without an elected body since April 2020.
She expressed her disappointment stating that while the Board was dissolved in April-2020 and it was not until September 2021 that the Govt. of Assam in a Cabinet Meeting declared that Silchar shall be converted into a Corporation along with the Dibrugarh Municipality. But till now there has been no steps taken regarding Silchar while Dibrugarh Municipality, despite this Cabinet decision, got an elected body, she mentioned.
“A Delimitation Board was formed in January 2023 and a rather slow process to delimit the Silchar Municipal area had full public cooperation but till today it has not fructified into a corporation. It is over three years now and the Municipality continues to run under an officer with no public representative. It is questionable why Dibrugarh and Silchar have been treated differently in this regard,” the former MP said.
Further, Dev said that there is a High Court decision that a new elected body of any local government body must be in place before the tenure of an outgoing body is completed. Therefore, there is absolutely no justification for delaying the election in Silchar town area. Drawing the attention of the Minister of Urban Development, Dev placed strong demands for election of the Municipal area of Silchar to be conducted immediately in the greater interest of the people.
