The administrators were appointed on May 6 to run the day-to-day affairs of the corporation after the civic body elections were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday once again sought information from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about a caretaker board of administrators set up to run the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
In a letter to Banerjee, Dhankhar criticised her “non-responsive” approach towards the Raj Bhavan, and said he was still awaiting information he had sought a week ago on the matter.
On May 7, Dhankhar had invoked Article 167 of the Constitution to seek information from the Chief Minister about the appointment of the administrative board headed by state minister Firhad Hakim, who was also the city mayor before the tenure of the regular board of the civic body expired. Article 167 lays down the duties of the Chief Minister to furnish information to the governor.
“Your continued non-responsive stance when it comes to the performance of ‘duties’ under Constitution towards the Governor in terms of Article 167 is unfortunate and contrary to your oath under Article 164 and against the essence and spirit of the Constitution and surely cannot be countenanced,” Dhankhar wrote.
The administrators were appointed on May 6 to run the day-to-day affairs of the corporation after the civic body elections were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The following day, a petitioner moved the Calcutta High Court, challenging the appointments.
However, a single-judge bench allowed the panel to function for four weeks. On May 12, a two-judge division bench ordered the caretaker body to continue running the KMC till July 20.