West Bengal Assembly paves way for a non-elected person to become mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation

Kolkata: The West Bengal Assembly on Thursday approved a bill which paved the way for appointment of a person as mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) along with the existing provision that only an elected person could occupy the chair. [caption id=“attachment_5599621” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of West Bengal State Legislative Assembly House. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The person, however, after being appointed as mayor has to get elected as a councillor of KMC within six months of the nomination. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, was introduced in the state Assembly by municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim. BJP extended support to the Bill which was passed by the voice vote. The Left Front and Congress MLAs were not present in the House as they had earlier decided to boycott the Assembly. The existing law allowed only elected members of the municipal council to occupy the post of  mayor. The amendment to the KMC law was carried by the state government to enlarge the ambit of choosing a person on the important post of mayor of the city’s civic body. Following directions from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to step down from the post of mayor, incumbent Sovan Chatterjee quit from the post on Thursday. Chatterjee had earlier resigned from the post of Housing and Fire Services minister on Tuesday.