Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation corporator Bandita Pal was suspended for one day after she recorded proceedings of a civic body meeting, while Biju Janata Dal corporators protested separately over the delayed approval of Rs 100 crore for sanitation work.
Pal, who represents ward no. 37 and belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party, was suspended during the BMC meeting on Tuesday, according to mayor Sulochana Das. The mayor said live recording of the proceedings was prohibited under the corporation’s rules.
“She had been raising certain issues regarding proceedings of the Corporation meeting when it was going on. I, the commissioner and other corporators were present. Later it was found that she was shooting the meeting’s proceedings,” Das said, as quoted by The Times of India.
The mayor said the action was taken in accordance with the applicable rule. The report did not specify the provision under which the suspension was imposed or whether Pal was barred from attending any additional meetings beyond the one-day suspension.
Pal questioned the mayor’s authority to suspend her. The disagreement places the corporation’s procedural rules and the powers exercised by its presiding office at the centre of the immediate dispute. No further statement from Pal was included in the report.
The suspension came amid a separate confrontation over municipal sanitation funding. BJD corporators staged a dharna before the corporation meeting began, protesting the delay in approval of Rs 100 crore for sanitation. The report did not provide details on the proposed allocation, the specific sanitation activities it would finance, or the reason for the delay.
The two developments together brought both internal meeting procedure and civic service administration into the same BMC session. The recording dispute concerns restrictions on documenting proceedings, while the protest concerns the approval of funds for sanitation services across the municipal area.
The report did not state whether the Rs 100 crore proposal was subsequently placed before, discussed by or approved by the corporation. It also did not identify the next administrative step on the funding request or provide a timeline for a decision.
For residents, the immediate operational question is whether the pending approval affects planned sanitation work and when the corporation will take a formal decision on the allocation. The report contained no further details on service disruptions, implementation schedules or departmental responsibilities.
The mayor’s statement and the protest by BJD corporators establish the two issues that marked the meeting. Further clarity will depend on the corporation’s formal record of the proceedings, the rule cited for the suspension and the status of the Rs 100 crore sanitation proposal.
