Administrator to run Shimla Municipal Corporation
Himachal Sarkar, its bureaucrats and the State Election Commission have failed to conduct the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections on time and now the corporation will not be governed by the elected mayor, deputy mayor and councilor, but non elected Administrator will run the Corporation. Since it is not possible to hold Shimla Municipal Corporation elections in any situation till June 18, in such a situation the administrator is sure to be appointed.
This is probably happening for the first time in Shimla Municipal Corporation that if government fails to hold elections on time, they will have to put an administrator on the corporation. The Congress and the Left are calling it a failure of the Jai Ram government. Perhaps Jai Ram Thakur has become the first Chief Minister who could not get the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections held on time. Behind this, there must have been a doubtful reason ? Either a fer of defeat or something else.
The State High Court, while disposing of the petition filed for the demarcation of some wards of the corporation, canceled the demarcation of these wards. It was the responsibility of the Jai Ram government and the State Election Commission to get the wards demarcated properly and such officers should have been employed in this work who would be capable of getting such work done. But Jairam Sarkar failed in this matter. Now here also the BJP government has been blamed for postponing the corporation elections like in Delhi. Especially Urban Development Minister and Shimla MLA Suresh Bhardwaj is on everyone’s target. On the other hand, the State Election Commission is also in the dock as to why it could not conduct the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections in time, while the decisions of various courts including the Supreme Court are quite clear. If all this happened in the presence of State Election Commissioner and former Chief Secretary Anil Khachi and who are considered competent and law-abiding officers. It is a matter of time that he was removed from the post of Chief Secretary by the Jairam government ahead of time.
However, the Jairam government and the BJP are outright happy that the elections were not held on time. The BJP was already skeptical about the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections that like the by-elections, it should not face defeat here. In such a situation, ideas were being found on how to avoid these elections. The re-demarcation of the wards was done in such a way that some councilors had to go to court and the matter got stuck there. If the demarcation was done right, this might not have happened.
State Election Commission Secretary Surjit Singh Rathore said that the ASOG wants the process of re-delimitation to be completed at the earliest. When asked whether there is any time limit, he said that there is no such time limit. He said that the tenure of Municipal Corporation Shimla will end on June 18. In such a situation, the government will have to set up an administrator there.
If Surjit Rathore is to be believed, then there is no other option. When asked whether there is an order of the Supreme Court to conduct the civic elections on time. Rathore said that the court was informed about this during the hearing. In this way, he is also trying to put the indirect blame on the court. In this way, the alliance of politicians and bureaucrats has come to destroy the democratic system itself. Earlier, in the earlier Virbhadra Singh government, politicians and bureaucrats had fed all kinds of flowers to bring Dharamshala in the list of smart city. The figures were even rigged. Here the bureaucrats have shown fire during the demarcation itself.
On the other hand, former Mayor Sanjay Chauhan says that BJP and Jai Ram government only want that an administrator should be appointed. They say that all the works above five lakh rupees come to the corporation’s house for approval and those works can be done only after the house is passed. After June 18, if the house is not there, then the government will get the works worth crores of rupees in the name of smart city done voluntarily through the administrator. This is the real reason behind not holding elections on time. Crores will be looted by this. The other BJP was afraid of defeat.
