A re-run of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) episode related to bringing back the KMC mayor as the head of its board of administrators is all set to be replicated in 91 municipalities including Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) triggering yet another controversy.

The five-year term in 89 municipalities is scheduled to end by this month while the boards in two other civic bodies in Asansol and Bidhannagar respectively will continue till October when their terms end.

Sources in the state secretariat Nabanna said that the state government is sitting idle on a proposal made by the urban development and municipal affairs department (UDMA) for the past 21 days since the third week of April and plans to make chairmen administrators in these municipalities.

UDMA had proposed the government to appoint serving WBCS officers at the rank of subdivisional officers (SDOs) as administrators for the 91 municipalities each with the end of their terms.

According to Article 243U (1) of the Constitution of India, the maximum term of a civic body is five years from the date of their first meeting and “no longer”.

A new board is supposed to be formed through elections. Following the step taken for KMC, the Trinamul Congress government wants to bring back chairmen of the 90 municipalities except SMC appointing them as administrators each for every municipality through alternative policy after the term ends so that it can continue its political control in urban local bodies before the assembly elections in the state scheduled in 2021.

Apart from Siliguri and Joynagar municipal bodies ruled by CPI-M and Congress respectively, the remaining 89 civic bodies are ruled by the ruling Trinamul Congress. But a large number of municipalities including Barrackpore, Naihati, Kanchrapara, Khardah, Halisahar, Bhatpara, Bongaon and several others in North 24 Parganas and North Bengal districts where BJP had made substantial inroads since last Lok Sabha elections held one year ago.

The state government has already decided to bring back Mr Ashoke Bhattacharya, mayor of Left-ruled SMC and former UDMA minister, as an administrator in the Siliguri civic board.

This move may also be applied to Congress-ruled Joynagar municipality in South 24 Parganas. These are planned to probably stop any challenge to this arrangement from the opposition BJP, Left and Congress. Apart from KMC, there are hardly any precedents to make municipal chairmen administrators in civic bodies since 1990, an expert in municipal affairs pointed out.

The UDMA department in its proposal had also asked the district magistrates (DMs) across the state to recommend names of WBCS officers working under DMs for the post of administrators in these municipalities. Administrators from IAS and WBCS cadres are running 18 other municipalities including Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) for more than one and a half years after the fiveyear term in each of these municipalities were over in 2018.

The excuse of coronavirus outbreak is being given now to continue the “rule of the previous board” said an official requesting anonymity.

The state government is yet to conduct elections in these 18 municipalities to form new boards. Mr Khalil Ahmed, KMC commissioner, holding additional charge as UDMA secretary, was not available for comment.

Caretaker board till 20 July: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered that a board of administrators headed by mayor Firhad Hakim will act as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) caretaker board till 20 July.

A division bench comprising Justices I P Mukerji and T Ghosh extended the term of the caretaker board till 20 July. A single bench had on 7 May directed that the board of administrators, which was appointed by the West Bengal government following the completion of its five-year term, would function for four weeks. In an interim order on 7 May, Justice Subrata Talukdar had directed that to ensure that the functions of the KMC were carried out smoothly during the extraordinary situation arising out of the coronavirus breakout, the caretaker board would look after its day-to-day operations for a month.

Challenging the order, petitioner Sharad Kumar Singh had moved the division bench.