Odisha Capital to get first woman Mayor

Bhubaneswar: Women Mayors will be elected for two municipal corporations including Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation in the State.

In a gazette notification today, the Odisha government proposed to reserve the post of Mayor of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) for women.

The post of Mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) will be for an unreserved Corporator.

The Housing and Urban Development Department in the gazette notification invited objections and suggestions from general public on the reservation for the post of Mayor. The suggestions and objections are to be filed before the Director of Municipal Corporation within a period of 15 days from the date of the publication of the notification.

Last week, the State government released the draft reservation list of wards for Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Cuttack Municipal Corporation and Berhampur Municipal Corporation. Also, the delimitation of wards for the three municipal corporations was finalised.

While BMC will have 67 wards, the CMC has been divided into 59 wards. The BeMC will have 42 wards.
Odisha has five municipal corporations: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Cuttack Municipal Corporation, Berhampur Municipal Corporation, Sambalpur Municipal Corporation and Rourkela Municipal Corporation.

The process for election to urban local bodies (ULBs) in the State has started with delimitation of wards. The ULB poll is expected to be held after panchayat elections in February this year.

Urban local body elections have never been held in Sambalpur and Rourkela after they were upgraded to municipal corporations in November 2013 and November 2014, respectively.