Seven withdraw from civic board

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Nov 20: Protesting against the English Bazaar Municipality chairman’s alleged divide and rule policy, seven non-left councillors have withdrawn support from the Congress led civic board.The withdrawal would not result in the dissolution of the 25-member board because of the numbers, but the development surely would weaken the board.Backed by the English Bazaar Congress MLA Mr KN Choudhury, the seven councillors expressed their ‘no confidence’ against the chairman of the municipality Mr Narendranath Tiwari last night and submitted their resignation letter jointly. The EBM chairman and the dissenters have been at loggerheads for quite some time. The same group of councillors had declared a non co-operation movement against the chairman Mr Tiwari some months back. Senior Congress leaders had intervened to save the situation in that instance. The dissenting councillors Ms Sandhya Das, Mr Ashok Saha, Mr Surojit Das, Ms Protiva Singh, Mr Shantanu Saha, Ms Kakali Choudhury and Mr Rama Prasad Banerjee are loyal to the Congress MLA Mr KN Choudhury. Most of them won from Trinamul Congress tickets.If the development has left the chairman shaken, he is hiding it well. “It is their style of bargaining to enjoy ‘undue advantage’ from the board and earn money. “I did not allow them to do so, which frustrated them,” Mr Tiwari said. He is aware of the numbers game too. “They need at least nine councillors to dislodge me. They do not have the required number now,” he added. The action has drawn flak from the Opposition leader and CPI-M councillor Mr DN Chaki. “The withdrawal is not based on any ideology. It was simply a fallout of an internal feud on the issue of commission and shares from some big projects,” he stated. One of the rebel councillors Mr Rama Prasad Banerjee said: “ We have lost faith in the present chairman. He did not bother to allot funds equally to all 25 wards for development. Our withdrawal is in protest against his divide and rule policy.” Having distanced themselves from the board, some of the dissenting councillors are apparently unhappy with Mr Krishnendu Choudhury’s role on whose advise they decided to withdraw To some it was a “hasty decision.” Mr Choudhury has his own logic but. “I decided to protest against the board because the people are being deprived of proper services by the present board,” he claimed.