POLITICS IN KAIMUR DISTRICT COUNCIL HEATED UP

POLITICS IN KAIMUR DISTRICT COUNCIL HEATED UP

1-JULY-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

BHABHUA---------------------------Politics within the Kaimur District Council (Zila Parishad) in Bihar has heated up significantly. Seven members have launched a campaign against the District Council Chairperson, Rinki Singh, and submitted a memorandum regarding a no-confidence motion to the District Magistrate (DM). Serious allegations of arbitrary functioning and corruption have been leveled against the Chairperson, intensifying political activity in the district.

District Council member Vikas, alias Lallu Singh, has raised several serious questions regarding the Chairperson. He alleges that members are not taken into confidence before the initiation of any scheme. The most significant allegation concerns the embezzlement of funds in the procurement of high-mast lights; members claim that lights with a market value of only ₹1.5 lakh are being billed at over ₹6 lakh. Furthermore, while state Panchayati Raj Department guidelines mandate a meeting every three months, no meeting has been convened here for over six months.

There are a total of 19 District Council members in the district. To effectively move a no-confidence motion, the support of at least 10 members is mandatory. Currently, seven members have submitted a written complaint, while it is claimed that six other members are also in contact with the dissident faction. Only time will tell how the situation unfolds. Geeta Pasi, a District Council member from Mohania, has also expressed dissatisfaction with the Chairperson's style of functioning, terming it arbitrary.

This no-confidence motion against the Kaimur District Council Chairperson is not the first such instance; the position has faced uncertainty in the past as well. Currently, an investigation into the high-mast light scam is underway by the DM; the impending results of this probe and the vote on the no-confidence motion have pushed district politics into a phase of horse-trading. All eyes are now fixed on whether Rinki Singh will succeed in saving her position or if the District Council will see a change in leadership.