Bengal amends law for creating new municipalities

The West Bengal Assembly on Friday passed a bill amending the West Bengal Municipal Act to reduce the time period for objections against creating new civic bodies to 30 days from the existing 90 days.

The bill amends the sections 5, 6 and 9 of the act that deal with abolishing or altering the limits of a municipal area.

"To cater to the need of greater physical infrastructure and to ensure improved service delivery as well as to support new industries, it is preferable to municipalise the areas.

"So, it has been strongly felt to reduce the time limit inviting objections upon issuance of the preliminary notification, which is three months at present," state Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim said, moving the amendment in the state assembly.

"Accordingly, it is considered necessary and expedient to amend the municipal act for the purposes of making provision for reducing the time period of three months to 30 days in respect to the constitution of new municipality in the state," added Hakim.

Both the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) opposed the amendment, contending reducing the time limit will deprive people the opportunity to put forth their objections.

CPI-M member Anisur Rahman sought to bring an amendment in bill calling for increasing the time limit from 30 days to 45 days but Speaker Biman Banerjee did not admit it.