Pratibha Rai new chairperson of Darjeeling Municipality

The Darjeeling Municipality today got a new chairperson, over three months after the then chairman, DK Pradhan was arrested and the vice chairman, Ram Jan Golay, tendered his resignation. Pratibha Rai was today elected the civic body chief by 30 of the 32 ward councilors, while she was sworn in by Darjeeling Sub-Divisional Officer Avik Chatterjee.

“I thank the Morcha leadership for this post, while this proves that  they believe in women empowerment as they have given important posts to women, like the primary education board of the GTA being given to Tshering Dahal, and the trade union of the party given to Karuna Gurung. I will treat all the issues as primary, while also focusing on garbage disposal. I have also nominated Sagar Tamang as the new vice chairman, who also took oath of office today,” Ms Rai said.

According to her, Mr Golay’s resignation had been accepted “recently.” It may be mentioned here that on 10 January this year, Mr Pradhan was removed as the chairman in a meeting called by Mr Golay. A total of 28 ward councilors had removed Mr Pradhan then, while the Binoy Tamang camp of the Morcha had then said that Mr Golay’s resignation had not been accepted.

Apart from Mr Pradhan, who is still in custody, councilor of ward-1, Nira Sharma, was not present in today’s meeting, with the latter’s post remaining disputed as she allegedly holds a Nepali citizenship too. Asked what would happen to Ward-10 from where Mr Pradhan had had contested, Ms Rai said,

“He is still in the correctional home and we will look after that ward until he comes out.” According to her, the posts for the different departments in the municipality would be fixed in two to three days’ time. The name of Ms Rai as chairperson and Mr Tamang as vice-chairman had been announced by the Binoy Tamang camp of the Morcha on 3 January.

After the swearing-in ceremony today, a rally escorted the new chiefs around town, while their supporters burst firecrackers and oirganised a a small public meeting at Chowk Baazar here.

Statesman News Service