RTI gun on municipal board

[ganpat1956]

Dhubri

Aug. 22: The continuing logjam in the Dhubri Municipal Board has led the Dhubri Citizens’ Forum to seek all information relating to the board’s affairs from 1987 to 2007 under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

This decision was taken at a meeting organised by the forum at the open-air theatre in the town on Sunday.

Speakers expressed concern over the strike by the Dhubri Municipal Board Employees’ Union for nearly two months now.

The meeting was held under the presidentship of Subhash Chandra Paul, a senior citizen of Dhubri town. Hundreds of citizens attended the meeting.

It decided to submit a memorandum to deputy commissioner G.K. Kalita, seeking an end to the impasse caused by the employees’ strike. It also resolved to seek information relating to all activities of the municipal board in the past decade.

“The present dispensation has made a mockery of the administration — it has been unable to regularly pay even the salaries of its employees. Employees have been denied their pay for 40 months now. Why are the district administration and the state government sitting idle?” asked Tripath Nath Chakraborty, a retired professor.

Chakraborty wanted to know from the two ex-chairmen of the municipal board, who were present at the meeting, details about the total income of the board from various sources and its expenditure on various heads.

He also stressed the need to seek relevant information relating to income, expenditure, funds received from the state and central governments and the assets built by the Dhubri Municipal Board from 1987 to 2007.

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Northeast

[Debashis Basu]

Good step. But what about the mandatory annual audit report of the municipality ? This audit report must be easily available ?