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City mayor faces corporators’ ire

CUTTACK: The political atmosphere in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) council is heating up even as the five year term of the local body is coming to an end in September this year.

Corporators from the ruling BJP and BJP combine on Monday staged a demonstration in front of the CMC commissioner’s office leveling serious allegations against Mayor Nibedita Pradhan belonging to BJP.

At least 20 corporators of the ruling combine directed their anguish on Pradhan alleging that she is acting as a puppet on the direction of city BJP legislator Samir Dey, who is holding a cabinet berth in the Naveen Patnaik Government.

Taking advantage of the situation, the opposition Congress too has launched its tired against the Mayor.

“The Minister, Mayor and the former’s brother-in-law have virtually looted the civic body as a result, the city denizens are facing untold miseries”, said the City Congress President Suresh Mohapatra. So shady are the affairs of the CMC now that the investigating agencies such as CBI, State crime branch and the Vigilance wing of the State Police have been investigating into several scams of the civic body following the direction of State High Court, Mohapatra said.

While Congress is trying to win some brownie points from the muddy water, the ruling party corporators, particularly of BJP are out to quiver the pitch for the beleaguered Mayor who had been facing strong opposition from some disgruntled party colleagues in the council ever since she assumed the coveted post in October 2003.

Party leaders allege that the Minister with his strong arm twisting tactic has emptied the coffers of the civic body and the Mayor is also hand-in-glove with the former.

They pointed out that the Minister’s brother-in-law has amassed huge money from the civic body’s mosquito eradication programme by purchasing poor quality mosquito larvae (ML) oil.

Demanding immediate dissolution of the civic body council, the disgruntled corporators demanded that stringent and exemplary actions should be initiated against the city mayor and the city legislator so as to save the people from further miseries.

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