WB Assembly passes bill to enable non-elected person to be

The West Bengal Assembly Thursday approved a bill which paved the way for appointment of a person as Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation along with the existing provision that only elected person could occupy the chair.

The person, however, after being appointed as Mayor has to get elected as a councillor of KMC within six months of the nomination.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 was introduced in the state Assembly by Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim.

BJP extended support to the Bill which was passed by the voice vote. The Left Front and Congress MLAs were not present in the House as they had earlier decided to boycott the Assembly.

The existing law allowed only elected members of the Municipal council to occupy the post of the Mayor.

The Amendment to the KMC law was carried by the state government to enlarge the ambit of chosing a person on the important post of Mayor of the city's civic body.

Following directions from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to step down from the post of Mayor, incumbent Sovan Chatterjee quit from the post on Thursday.

Chatterjee had earlier resigned from the post of Housing and Fire Services minister on Tuesday.