The state government has decided to appoint administrators to run the 34 per cent uncontested seats in the three-tier rural bodies as the Supreme Court is yet to decide their fate.
Sources in the state panchayat and rural development department said that the decision to appoint administrators has been taken to ensure that development projects are not hampered in villages with the rural bodies remaining headless.
Among the three-tier panchayat bodies, administrators would be appointed in gram panchayats first as their tenures would expire between 16 to 29 August.
The department has issued a directive to the District Magistrates (DM) on appointing respective block development officers as administrators in the uncontested gram panchayats.
Appointment of administrators would ensure smooth functioning of the gram panchayats like providing income certificates, residential certificates, which in turn would help villagers to avail government facilities including free treatment at government-run health care establishments.
However, the department is not going ahead with the appointments of administrators in zilla parishads and panchayat samitis immediately as their tenures would start expiring from 9 September.
“We are hopeful that the apex court judgement would be delivered before those rural bodies end their terms else DMs and subdivisional officers would be appointed to function as administrators for zilla parishads and panchayat samitis respectively. The administrators would start functioning immediately after the rural bodies end their tenures”, the source added.
According to data available with the West Bengal State Election Commission, 20,076 out of 58,692 seats have gone uncontested in the three tiers of panchayat.
In case of zilla parishads, 203 out of 825 seats are uncontested; in panchayat samitis, 3,059 out of 9,217 seats are uncontested and in gram panchayats, 16,814 out of 48,650 seats are uncontested.
It will be in these 16,814 gram panchayat seats that the state government would appoint administrators.