Municipal Commissioner to take over as PMC administrator on March 15

The state government has issued order for appointment of the municipal commissioner as Administrator since the civic body elections could not be held on time before the end of existing five-year term of the general body.

The municipal commissioner said that he was not aware of the powers to be given to the Administrator in absence of general body. “The state government has already appointed Administrator at five municipal corporations and many more civic bodies, including PMC, will also have Administrator now. I am expecting communication on exact powers for Administrator. The main objective for appointing Administrator is to ensure that the functioning of PMC goes on as usual,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state government is learnt to have decided to postpone the elections of civic bodies for six months so as to complete the administrative process for ensuring political reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) categories.

On whether the outgoing standing committee of PMC would be able to finalise the draft civic budget, the municipal commissioner said, “There is only one week left for completion of the five-year term of general body and standing committee. We have to check whether it is legally possible to allow the standing committee to finalise the budget.”