IMPHAL, Sep 1: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the initiative of Bijaya Chakravorty, MP of Lok Sabha, along with L. Basanta Sharma, secretary of media affairs, BJP Manipur State Unit and Yanglet Haokip, secretary of BJP Manipur State Unit, has submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister and Union Urban Development Minister today regarding the suspension of Imphal Municipal Council (IMC) for six months.
Speaking to IFP, L. Basanta stated that the national leaders of BJP, namely Sushma Swaraj, Bijoya Chakravorty, Arun Jaitley, SS Ahluwalia, Prakash Javedkar, Ravisankar Prasad and Chandrasekhar Rao had seriously discussed the suspension of Imphal Municipal Council for six months on the basis of an old show-cause notice dated 14-10-2009 and then authorized Bijoya Chakravorty to meet the concerned Minister and Prime Minister on behalf of the BJP.
The memorandum submitted by Bijoya stated that the act of suspension of Imphal Municipal Council by the Manipur Government is undemocratic and it is only an act for misusing the funds provided under JNNURM.
The Imphal City has been included in the JNNURM under which Rs. 1872 crores have been approved by the Government of India for the modernization and beautification of the city. All works are to be completed within 2012 and at this critical juncture the suspension of IMC has hindered the progress of all works, it said.
The memorandum further maintained that as per the guidelines of JNNURM the state may allocate funds to towns and cities based on similar formula but the funds would be provided only to those towns and cities where elections to local bodies are held and the elected bodies are in position. However, the implementation of JNNURM in Imphal has to be stopped till the IMC is revived or constituted. The suspension is an extra-constitutional term not existed anywhere in any Municipality, it noted.
The BJP further condemned the act of suspension of IMC and challenged the enactment of Manipur Municipality 3rd Amendment Act, 2005, under which the controversial provision of suspension and revival of the council are formulated, Basanta asserted.