The elections to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) have been delayed by 18 months and politicians are now questioning how long the civic body can continue to function in its present state.
The five-year term of the NMC ended on March 5, 2022. Following that date, the then Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B was appointed as the administrator for the corporation. After him now Dr Abhijeet Choudhari is the administrator in absence of an elected civic body.
Maharashtra’s local body polls have been delayed because of the hearing of the petition pending before the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the previous hearing on the petition in this case was held almost a year ago, in August 2022. after that, the hearing is continuously pending.
There are several issues that the people are facing and those are directly handled by the public body. Public representatives are key to solving these issues. But since there is no public representative, People have to wander to solve their problems related to NMC. Due to the absence of public representatives, there is no one to check the work of the administration.
A corporator is a public representative who is easily accessible to the people. So people run to him to solve their problems. Former corporators and political workers are constantly doing people’s work but since last 18 months they have no authority so the problem before them is contact which authority to solve the problems of the people.
Many political workers are hoping that the elections will be held soon but as there is no sign of election, their patience is running out.
Every time the state government asks for extension of time during the hearing in the Supreme Court. It is a situation that local self government bodies elections are not possible this year. Looking at the current political situation in the state, it is predicted that these elections will be held only after the Lok Sabha elections.