The has decided to issue an ordinance next week, amending relevant sections of theBihar Municipality Act, 2007 to facilitate direct election of mayor and deputy mayor of municipal corporations as well as heads and their deputies in otherUrban Local Bodies(ULBs), sources said.
The state cabinet approved the proposal last Wednesday and the governor has also given his Consent. Accordingly, the legal cell has started the process to give shape to the ordinance in the right earnest. In all Probability, the ordinance will be issued next week, a top source in the urban development and housing department said.
The ordinance is purported to amend the twoArticlesof the existing Act Article 23(1) and Article 25 and pave way to fill the posts of the heads and deputy heads of ULBs through direct election. It is also in practice in other states likeMadhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, UP andUttarakhand. TheULBElections will not be held on the party lines.
Earlier, the elected councillors of the wards of various ULBs used to select their heads and deputy heads and mayor and deputy mayor in the case of Municipal Corporation. Under Article 25, a group comprising one-third of the total number of councillors in a ULB used to serve a notice to arbitrarily seek removal of the head of the ULB concerned.