Rourkela: With the BJP coming to power in Odisha, hopes have once more surfaced that elections to the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) will be held soon. Elections for office-bearers of the RMC were last held in 2008. The term of the office-bearers ended in 2013 and since then elections have not been conducted for more than nine years. This has affected the functioning of the RMC, locals pointed out. BJP candidate in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Odisha, Dilip Ray, had during his campaign asserted that if his party comes to power in the state, RMC elections will be conducted soon. Even though Ray lost to BJD’s Sarada Prasad Nayak, the BJP has come to power in the state. The question is whether the new government will take the initiative to hold elections to various positions in the RMC.
Despite his defeat, Ray has time and again reiterated that elections to the RMC should be held as it will be beneficial for this town. However, there are hindrances that are preventing RMC elections. One of the major issues is the inclusion of tribal villages in the RMC. The BJD government in 2013 had upgraded the Rourkela Municipality to Corporation. Then through a notification issued by the Urban Development Ministry, it brought six peripheral villages under the RMC. This led to massive protests by the tribals living in those villages. Following the massive protests, the ministry removed four of the six villages from the jurisdiction of the RMC.
However, that did not satisfy the agitators led by local leader George Tirkey, who was then in the opposition. He moved the Orissa High Court on this issue and in an order dated March 17, 2015, it stayed the notification of the ministry. Since then the matter is pending in court. As the issue is still sub-judice, elections to the RMC cannot be conducted, officials in know of things pointed out. Rebel BJP candidate Nihar Ray informed that he has also moved the court so that elections to the various posts in the RMC are conducted. However, there has not been any development in the case so far, he added.
