Bengal govt appoints administrator for Naihati Municipality

The West Bengal government has appointed an administrator to run the Naihati Municipality in North 24 Parganas District, officials said on Saturday.

The state's Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim said the administrator has been appointed to oversee affairs of the civic body.

Twenty-nine out of 31 councillors of the municipality had recently joined the BJP.

On Friday, 18 of them submitted a letter to the Naihati Municipality Board, seeking a meeting to deliberate on a no-confidence motion against Chairman Ashok Chatterjee.

"We hope that the appointment of the administrator will help restore normalcy in the civic body," a senior official at the Urban Development Department said.

A number of councillors of the Bhatpara, Halisahar and Kanchrapara municipalities have also defected to the BJP.

"We are yet to take a decision on these three municipalities. We are working on it," the official added.

Meanwhile, the BJP accused the Trinamool Congress of using backdoor strategy by appointing an administrator to run the Naihati Municipality.

"The ruling TMC is trying the backdoor strategy to run a civic body where it has lost majority. I fear that the state government will do the same for the other three municipalities