Mamata Banerjee skips KMC councillors’ meeting, to fly to Delhi
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Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday cancelled a scheduled meeting with Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) councillors and will travel to New Delhi to attend an opposition INDIA bloc meeting on Monday, party sources said.
Councillors who had been asked to assemble at Trinamool Bhavan were informed of the cancellation; no official reason was given. Banerjee’s nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee left for Delhi on Saturday.
The meeting was seen as important amid turmoil at the KMC following the resignation of Firhad Hakim as mayor and municipal affairs minister. The new state government under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has served a notice to KMC asking why the Trinamool led board should not be dissolved after the mayor’s exit. The notice cites Section 117(1) of the KMC Act, 1980, which allows the state to dissolve the corporation.
The KMC board has been further weakened by resignations of other officials, including a Mayor in Council member and two borough chairpersons. Tensions between KMC chairperson Mala Roy and the state Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Department have produced legal disputes over the board’s continuation.
Since the May 4 assembly results, police have arrested eight KMC councillors on assorted charges including corruption, extortion and alleged misconduct toward women, adding to the crisis within the corporation.
(Inputs from IANS)