There were no surprises in the selection of the posts of five members of mayors-in-council (MMiCs) of Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC) today.
The five MMiCs took oath today, four months after formation of the civic board.
Bidhan Upadhyay, mayor of AMC announced the names of the five MMiCs and said the names of the rest MMiCs will also be announced soon.
However, till today the names of borough chairmans have not been announced.
Indrani Mishra, Manas Das, Gurudas Chatterjee, Subrata Adhikary and Diobyendu Bhagat took oath as MMiCs today. All these councillors are known to be close to Asansol North MLA and state law and judiciary minister Moloy Ghatak.
Notable names who have missed out on the race to become MMiCs are senior income tax advocate Tapan Banerjee, student leader Ashok Rudra, dentist Dr Debashis Sarkar, principal of Banwarilal BhalotiaCollege Dr Amitabha Basu, popular Hindi speaking leader of Raniganj Rupesh Yadav etc.
The state government has planned to make Abhijit Ghatak and Wasimul Haq joint deputy mayors of AMC. But, the governor has not cleared the file sent to him yet leading to the delay in appointing two deputy mayors.
Though the five MMiCs have taken oath today, their portfolios have not yet been announced. Even AMC mayor Bidhan Upadhyay is not a councillor.
Chaitali Tewari, leader of BJP said that at last, only five names have been announced hurriedly after they had moved court. Still, the borough chairmans’ posts and other MMiC posts are not announced and people will face difficulties in getting civic amenities, she alleged.
Chairman, Amar Nath Chatterjee, commissioner Rahul Majumdar were also present during the oath-taking ceremony.