This story is from August 25, 2020

Bhagalpur ward councillors stage protest against civic body chief

Bhagalpur ward councillors stage protest against civic body chief
BHAGALPUR: A large number of Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation (BMC) ward councillors led by mayor Seema Saha and deputy mayor Rajesh Verma staged a daylong dharna against municipal commissioner J Priyadarshani on Monday.
They accused him of not implementing and delaying various developmental projects in the city. The ward councillors threatened to resign and intensify their stir against the commissioner and sought CM Nitish Kumar’s attention towards their plight.
Sources said 35-40 ward councillors out of the total 51 were present in the dharna.
They were also upset over Bhagalpur getting a humiliating 4th dirtiest city with less than 10 lakh population in the country. The Swachh Survekshan results were declared recently. They blamed the commissioner’s apathetic approach to the city’s development as the reason behind such a tag.
The mayor alleged that the commissioner seldom visits office and administers through subordinates whereas the ward councillors are neglected.
“Jo bhi vikas ki yojana board meeting mein pass hoti hai uska bhi kaam nahi hota hai (even developmental projects approved in the BMC board meeting are not implemented),” alleged the deputy mayor. He cited the example of garbage dumping ground project pending since more than a year. He also alleged that several expenditures and purchases were made without the approval of BMC Standing Committee.
Later, the BMC commissioner reached the dharna site and expressed her desire to mend the functioning style besides accepting the demands of the demonstrating councillors, deputy mayor Rajesh Verma said. The commissioner also sought the cooperation of the ward councillors, added Verma, saying we would watch her reconciliation gesture before intensifying the protests.
Priyadarshani told this newspaper that there were minor issues with the demonstrating ward councillors and had been resolved. “We will work in cooperation with everyone for the betterment of the city,” she said.
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