West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has reiterated that the state will appoint coordinators in all 209 proposed Kolkata Municipal Corporation wards after November 30 if legal proceedings delay the civic elections, presenting the arrangement as an alternative mechanism for maintaining essential municipal services.
Adhikari said the coordinators would perform functions similar to those of elected councillors and monitor services including road maintenance and sanitation. He made the statement while inaugurating a Kali Puja in Ahiritola and criticised opposition to the proposed ward delimitation exercise.
“If you do not allow elections to be held, we have an alternative,” Adhikari said, according to the report. He said the government would ensure that services continued in every ward and argued that daily monitoring was necessary for civic work to remain effective.
The proposed arrangement comes amid a legal challenge to the increase in the number of KMC wards from 144 to 209. A Calcutta High Court division bench, a day before Adhikari’s latest statement, restrained the West Bengal State Election Commission from issuing a notification for the KMC elections until a single bench disposes of the pending petition challenging the proposed ward expansion.
Adhikari referred to the petitioner’s challenge and alleged that it was intended to prevent the civic elections from being held. The report does not include the petitioner’s response to that allegation. The chief minister said the state government would challenge the division bench’s order in the Supreme Court.
The dispute places Kolkata’s civic administration between an ongoing delimitation process and an uncertain election schedule. The proposed increase from 144 to 209 wards would alter the administrative map through which civic services are monitored and councillors, once elected, are expected to represent residents. The court proceedings have currently prevented the state election authority from moving ahead with an election notification.
Under the alternative plan outlined by Adhikari, coordinators would be appointed after November 30 if the elections remained stalled. The chief minister said their role would include regular oversight of services such as sanitation and road maintenance, which are normally monitored at ward level through the municipal political and administrative structure.
Adhikari also referred to current civic conditions in Kolkata, saying roads were being maintained and bleaching powder had been sprinkled nearby. He questioned how such work would be monitored daily without councillors and said the proposed coordinators would ensure continuity of services across the city.
The immediate next steps are the disposal of the pending petition by the Calcutta High Court’s single bench and the state’s proposed challenge before the Supreme Court. The election notification remains restrained until the legal process reaches the stage specified by the division bench order.
