CMC mayor resignation accepted, opposition cries foul

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Jan 4:
It was a blink and go. The emergency council meeting called for acceptance of resignation of  Cuttack Mayor Anita Behera today, was over in 5 minutes with voice vote, amid protests by the opposition, who wanted a discussion on the resignation and its contents.

The meeting under the chairmanship of Deputy Mayor Ajay Barik put forward the proposal for resignation, the proposal was accepted by voice vote. The BJP corporators started ranks during the voting.
The deputy mayor and BJD corporators closed the meeting and rushed out of the hall. The BJP corporators raised slogans, they were protesting the lack of transparency and were demanding a discussion before the resignation was accepted.
“The Mayor has already given her resignation on 31st December. We had been given 11 am as time for the meeting by 11:40 am all of them in a group walked into the hall. We wonder why they were in such a hurry that the resignation was accepted in 2-3 seconds,” said Giribala Behera Congress Corporator.

“We had proposed when the Deputy Mayor has announced that today’s resignation letter will be accepted before the house, we demanded that the resignation letter should be read out and after a discussion it should be accepted. But, the proposal was taken in a hurry and all of then left the venue”, she added.

Notably, Anita Behera, Mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) was embroiled in the ration card controversy and had resigned from her post owning moral responsibility after the opposition parties targeted her for her name being included in the beneficiary list for subsidized food grains provided under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).