New CCC mayor, councillors can’t take up any project

CHITTAGONG, May 11: The newly-elected city mayor and ward councillors cannot take up any project of Chittagong City Corporation due to legal complications.
This means that sufferings from water-logging during the upcoming rainy season and other civic problems of the city dwellers are set to be prolonged for about three months.
As per Local Government Act, the elected representatives of a city corporation will start working on the concluding day of five- year term of the previous body whose term started on July 26, 2010, the day of the first general meeting.
The outgoing city mayor and ward councillors held the first general meeting of the CCC on July 26, 2010 and the tenure of those councillors will end on July 25 of the current year because the councillors did not submit their resignation ahead of the just concluded city corporation election, although the then mayor, M Manjur Alam, resigned from the post as per rules of the Local Government.
The tenure of an elected body of a city corporation is full five years from the date of the first general meeting as per law, if they do not resign from the posts after the schedule of the next election of the same body is announced.
As per Local Government Act the newly elected mayors and councillors of Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and Rajshahi City Corporations had to join the offices in September, 2013 although they were elected in the election held on June 13 of the same year.
When contacted, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Kazi Shafiqul Alam said he had written to the secretary of the Local Government in Dhaka on Wednesday last to learn about when the newly-elected representatives will take over but he is yet to receive any written directives from the government in this connection.
Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government Md Abdul Malek verbally told the CEO of the CCC that the newly-elected mayor and councillors will have to wait until July 26, 2015 as per legal procedure of the Local Government Act.
The CEO said that CCC annual budget for fiscal year 2015-16 will also be declared this time by the panel mayor-1 who has been working as acting mayor of the CCC following resignation of M Manjur Alam.
The acting mayor will announce the budget in absence of the newly-elected mayor AJM Nasir Uddin and that budget meeting will be attended by the ward councillors elected in the June 2010 CCC election.
"The annual budget will be declared in June as per rule by the acting mayor but we are in consultation with the new mayor relating to the project proposals and other things for the upcoming fiscal year," the CEO told the FE today.
Meanwhile, a town planner said the city people will have to suffer further despite electing a mayor as all project works remain suspended until August next from March, 2015 in absence of the mayor who is responsible for the execution of the projects.
The acting mayor has been doing only the routine work and he has no authority to take up or implement any project of the CCC, said an engineer.
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