Only few came in Cong corporators’ meet!

Raipur, February 08, 2010

The first meeting of the Congress corporators that was held at Congress Bhawan on Monday noon had countable participants because a number of corporators and Mayor-in-Council (MiC) members did not turn up. A number of issues including cross voting during the election of Speaker were raised in the meeting, however, Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak failed to assure the corporators that in spite of RMC’s empty exchequer and no development works underway, the forthcoming months would be easy for them.

According to information, when the corporators saw only few MiC members in the meeting, they asked Nayak whether the others were above the organisation or had got carte blanche to do according to their wish. A few corporators even demanded action against those who were absent from the meeting terming it necessary to maintain discipline in the party.

On the issue of drinking water crisis that usually put RMC in defensive mode in summer, the corporators doubted that the people would sufficient water. They looked confused by mayor’s recent statement in which she had said that the state government’s Bhagirathi tap water scheme was a failure and the Rs 303.64 crore Water Augmentation Scheme would be delayed further. They also suggested that the number of water tanker should be increased to increase ferries in those areas where water table plunges sharply. The corporators further pointed out that the municipal had not yet fulfilled its promise to operate 100 city buses in the capital.

A number of new corporators who have been elected for the first time are in dilemma because they do not know whom to contact to ensure that the problems of their respective wards would be resolved at time. Notably, the RMC has divided into three camps which belong to Mayor, Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava and Commissioner Om Prakash Choudhary.

The RMC is also facing acute fund crisis as the outstanding amount against it is over Rs 34 crore while the expected revenue it will get is about Rs 27 crore. In this backdrop, the corporators suspect whether the fresh development works would commence in their wards or not.