Hooghly, 29 July (H.S.): The Trinamool Congress-run board of Arambagh Municipality has finally been dissolved, with Deputy Magistrate Samar Dutta appointed as the new administrator to oversee the civic body.

The administrator was appointed following directions from the Arambagh Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDO). Dutta assumed charge as administrator on Wednesday and will now oversee the overall functioning of the municipality.

According to sources, Municipality Chairman Samir Bhandari had been absent from the civic body for a prolonged period. Several other councillors were also reportedly not attending the municipality since the declaration of the Assembly election results.

As a result, several important civic works remained stalled, leading to an administrative deadlock and affecting essential services to residents. The situation also resulted in the salaries of municipal employees being held up, causing considerable hardship among the staff.

Despite repeated complaints, no effective solution emerged. Subsequently, Arambagh SDO Ravi Kumar intervened and issued a notice to the municipality. The board was subsequently dissolved and an administrator appointed.

The move has raised hopes among residents and municipal employees that civic services will now resume normally and pending works will be expedited.

Arambagh MLA Hemanta Bag said the municipality could not be allowed to remain dysfunctional as ordinary people were suffering. He said the administration was compelled to take the decision in view of the situation.

Meanwhile, former Vice-Chairperson of the dissolved board Mamata Mukhopadhyay said the government had changed around three months ago and the BJP was now in power. She claimed that Chairman Samir Bhandari had regularly attended the municipality but had been unable to do so for around one-and-a-half months due to health problems.

She acknowledged that civic services would naturally be affected under such circumstances and said she hoped residents would receive regular civic services under Administrator Samar Dutta.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey