Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s 45th General Council Meeting was disrupted by disputes over sanitation services, street lighting and municipal procedure, with Mayor Sulochana Das suspending Ward No. 37 Corporator Bandita Pal after she allegedly continued livestreaming the proceedings despite repeated objections.
The meeting, held Tuesday and chaired by Das, was attended by Municipal Commissioner Chanchal Rana, Deputy Mayor Manjulata Kanhara, additional commissioners Sasmita Sahu and Kailash Chandra Das, Chief Finance Officer Deepak Ranjan Behera, City Engineer Prafulla Kumar Raito, standing committee chairpersons, corporators and officials from several departments.
The first dispute concerned the inauguration of a road in Ward No. 10. Corporators objected that neither the ward representative nor the mayor had been invited to the event, describing the omission as an insult. They demanded that the road be formally inaugurated again by the municipal corporation. The protest ended after the mayor assured them that the civic body would organise a fresh inauguration.
Tensions later escalated when Pal allegedly began livestreaming the proceedings on her mobile phone while continuing to question the mayor and commissioner. According to the BMC, the mayor, commissioner and other corporators objected to the broadcast, saying it violated the rules governing the meeting. Pal allegedly continued despite repeated requests to stop, prompting other corporators to consider walking out.
Das subsequently suspended Pal from the meeting under Section 114(5) of the municipal law, citing alleged disorderly conduct and disrespect towards the House. The other corporators later returned to their seats, allowing the council meeting to continue.
The council then turned to sanitation and street-lighting arrangements, two basic services that determine how residents experience the city’s neighbourhoods after dark and how public spaces are maintained. Corporators raised objections over the proposed deployment of a new sanitation agency even though the tendering process had been completed.
Rana said the tender process had concluded and that an agency had been selected. However, he said the proposal had been forwarded to the state government for approval and that implementation would begin only after the necessary clearance was received.
Dissatisfied with the explanation, several corporators staged a sit-in protest near the podium. The situation eased after the mayor and commissioner assured them that efforts would be made to resolve the issue within 10 days. The source report did not specify the name of the selected agency, the value of the sanitation contract or the precise reason for the pending state approval.
The meeting also reviewed works approved by standing committees, the minutes of the previous council meeting and progress on earlier decisions. A question-and-answer session allowed corporators to raise queries with the mayor and commissioner, while several standing committee proposals were presented and approved by the House.
The immediate administrative milestones are the proposed fresh inauguration of the Ward No. 10 road, action on the sanitation agency after state clearance and efforts to resolve the sanitation and street-lighting concerns within the 10-day period assured by the municipal leadership.
