Rourkela: In a few days, Rourkela Assembly seat will get its new elected representative. However, despite the upgradation of Rourkela Municipality to Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC), the Steel City civic body is yet to get an elected body to take care of its day-to-day affairs. The last election of the civic body was held in 2008 and its upgradation was done in 2014. The term of the elected council led by BJD’s Rashmibala Mishra as chairperson of the municipality came to an end in 2013. A long time has passed since then but the wait for an elected body of Rourkela Municipal Corporation is yet to end. The number of wards under the civic body increased from 33 to 40 by merging Jagda area and parts of Jhartarang panchayat after Rourkela Municipality was upgraded to Municipal Corporation. This met with massive tribal opposition and legal hurdles, as a case was filed in the Orissa High Court opposing the enhancement status in 2015.
Ironically, it was George Tirkey, who is now in BJD, who had led a month-long seizure of the RMC office and also had filed the case in the Orissa HC. Notably, his son Rohit Joseph Tirkey is contesting on a party ticket from Biramitrapur Assembly segment in the ongoing polls. No serious effort is visible on the part of the BJD government to conduct the elections and take the plea as “the matter is sub-judice”. Nihar Ray, former chairman of Rourkela Municipality, who fought as an independent candidate as he was denied a BJP ticket for the Assembly polls, filed a writ petition in OHC in 2021. “My point is that the government should hold elections for the 33 wards of the municipality and not for the corporation since the latter’s status has been challenged in the OHC,” said Ray sometime back. He had further alleged that the state government is deliberately avoiding elections and is not serious about the legal hurdle as that will help it to take de facto control over the municipality by installing a commissioner here.
Interestingly, when the monthlong siege was laid by Tirkey, most of those who sat in demonstration did not belong to Rourkela. “They were drawn from all parts of the district to continue the agitation,” a police officer had said then. Today, in the absence of any elected representative, the city residents are completely dependent on the mercy of the RMC staff. It has affected all the denizens and also the overall performance and achievements of RMC. Now, the question arising in everybody’s mind is: when the elections will be held for RMC?
RAJESH MOHANTY, OP