3 town presidents recalled in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, Jun 17 (UNI) Three Town Panchayat Presidents have been recalled by the voters using 'Right to Recall' in Chhattisgarh.

The electoral symbol 'empty chair' -- symbolising the recall of the representative -- garnered more than 50 per cent votes against the 'filled chair' -- symbolising the right of the representative to remain in the chair -- during the counting of the right to recall election.

Hence, the Gunderdehi, Navagarh and Rajpur town panchayats presidents were removed from their posts.

This sounds an alarm for the local civic and Panchayat elected members who did not fulfill their promises after winning the seats.

State Election Office Panchayat and local civic bodies' sources told UNI that at all the three places, the voters rejected the representatives.

Navagarh Town President Sitaram (Independent) secured 805 votes in favour while 1,146 votes against, Gunderdehi Twon President Bharatiya Sonkar (Congress) received 1,389 votes in favour and 1,977 in against. Similarly, Rajpur Town President Khoren (Congress) got 740 in favour and 813 against.

There is a provision in Chhattisgarh Municipal Council Act 1961 Section 47 that if three-fourths corporators gave in written to the district collector that the town president had lost their confidence, then the process to recall him got started.

The sources said that in these cases, the collector received the complaints against the town presidents submitted by the concerned corporators. The complaints were examined and later the report was submitted to the state government.

After considering the report, the state government asked the state election commission to conduct the election.

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