North Lakhimpur Municipal Board imbroglio comes to an end

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Finally, the imbroglio in North Lakhimpur Municipal Board (NLMB) came to an end on Thursday. It happened in a public meeting convened by Lakhimpur DC Dr. Jeevan B, wherein the NLMB Chief Executive Officer and the chairperson declared their stand taken towards implementing the pending developmental schemes for the greater interest of the urban citizens and to play their designated roll following what rules and principle say.

It is noteworthy that the NLMB was in flux with three times changes of chairperson within three and half years period after it was constituted. Though the board was reconstituted under the leadership of Congress, one and half months back, an alleged conflict between the NLMB CEO and the chairperson, due to a case filed regarding the manipulation of board meeting proceeding, had affected the developmental activities of the constitutional body for a long time. As a result of it, the citizens of the Municipal area have to suffer a lot being deprived of the adequate facilities.

Moreover, funds amounting to Rs. 6.20 crore, allotted to the NLMB for various developmental heads, have been still pending being unutilized due to the imbroglio. Out of the gross amount, a fund of Rs. 5.50 crore, allotted under special grant for the construction of 31 roads in the municipal area, five months back, another fund amounting to Rs 70 lakhs, which was granted under 14th Finance Commission and a large amount of fund under Swachh Bharat Mission are still to be implemented. As a consequence, the Director of Municipal Administration had to issue four reminder letters to NLMB regarding the non-utilization of the fund of Rs. 5.50 crore. Under such circumstances, the chairperson and the Lakhimpur district unit of All Assam Unemployed Association(AAUA) had to convene two separate citizens’ meets to resolve the imbroglio. The citizens meet, organized by AAUA on Wednesday, took four resolution and called on the DC and demanded him to settle the internal problems the Board.

As per such development, the DC on Thursday evening convened the public meeting in the NLMB conference hall wherein taking active part he suggested to form a monitoring committee to monitor the activities of the Board. On the other hand, NLMB chairperson Surya Phukan admitted NLMB’s failure of implementing developmental activities on time and criticised the roll of the CEO regarding several issues.

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