As many as 16 ward commissioners of the 22-member Dibrugarh Municipal Board (DMB) expressed no-confidence against incumbent chairperson Soma Chakraborty during a special board meeting held here on Wednesday.
Among the ward commissioners who have revolted against the chairperson are 11 from the BJP, 4 from the Congress and 1 Independent.
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The 22-member Dibrugarh Municipal Board consists of 16 BJP members, 5 Congress members and the sole independent member.
It may be noted that the chairperson, who belongs to the BJP, remained absent during Wednesday’s board meeting.
The rebel ward commissioners later handed over a letter of no-confidence to Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner Laya Madduri.
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Talking to reporters, the rebel ward commissioners said that Chakraborty would not be allowed to function as the chairperson from now onwards.
The ward commissioners alleged that since her appointment as chairperson Soma Chakraborty had been acting in an autocratic manner and has not convened even a single official board meeting as per provision of the Assam Municipality Act, 1956.
Other allegations against Chakraborty include taking of financial decisions without consulting the members, failure to provide details of financial details of revenue and expenditure, failure to take corrective measures for curbing corruption in departments like hoardings and sanitary, allotment of markets without following proper norms of tendering, failure to implement schemes and keeping the town clean.
On April 24, Chakraborty was appointed as the chairperson of the Dibrugarh Municipal Board following an internal rebellion by saffron party ward commissioners against the then BJP chairperson Anuradha Dey, necessitating a change of guard.
The 16 ward commissioners who have sought Chakraborty’s ouster are Anuradha Dey, Manik Ghosh, Saikat Patra, Jugananda Sensuwa, Bajrang Mittal, Amrit Singh, Arpona Das Shah, Rachana Jain, Naushaba Rahman, Shampa Dey and Mamun Gogoi Mitra, all from BJP, congress ward commissioners Ranjit Chetia, Reena Gogoi, Chandrakanta Baruah and Reena Begum and independent member Tushar Choudhury.