Bihar first to grant voters the right to recall corporators

The Nitish Kumar-government has decided to empower the voters of the urban civic body polls to call back their elected representatives if they are not satisfied with their performance.
The state cabinet has agreed to the ‘right to recall’ proposal in this regard by giving its nod to the amendment to the Bihar Municipal Act.

It will enable the government to remove the elected representatives of the municipal corporations – Nagar Parishad and Nagar Panchayat -if two-thirds of the voters of their constituencies submit a signed petition to the urban development department against them. The department will look into the merit of the petition and take steps for the ouster of the councillors if it is convinced that they have lost the confidence of two-thirds of the voters.

The next urban bodies’ polls are due next year. Earlier, the Act had a provision for the removal of a councillor only if two-thirds of fellow councillors filed a written petition against him. But now, the government has vested the power directly with the voters.

There is already a provision under the Panchayati Raj system in the state for the recall of elected mukhiyas (village headmen). It will now be applicable to the elected representatives of the urban civic bodies as well.

It was the late Jayaprakash Narayan who had first given a call for the right to recall the elected representatives on November 4, 1974 during his Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution) movement against the Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi at the Centre.

But he had raised this demand to enable the constituents to recall the MPs and MLAs on the basis of their performance.

The state government has apparently taken this decision to make the elected representatives in the urban civic bodies accountable to the people in keeping with the spirit of JP’s call.

But the government’s decision has met with scepticism from majority of the corporators.

“The voters should also be given the right to recall the MPs and the MLAs who are the lawmakers. It would be better if the voters got the right to recall them,” Patna’s mayor Afzal Imam said.

Imam said JP had given a call to give the voters the right to recall the MPs and MLAs.

“The councilors or corporators are small fry compared to the MPs and MLAs,” he said.

“I think this provision should be introduced from the higher level to the lower level and not vice- versa,” he added.

Imam said in any case it would not be easy to implement this law.

“How will the government determine whether the petition submitted to it for the recall of the elected representatives carry the signatures of the genuine voters? How will it be ensured that the signatures of such a large number of people have not been forged?” Imam asked.