The election to the newly formed Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) is expected to get further delayed due to legal hurdles. The Odisha High Court, considering a writ petition filed by Ajay Kumar Mohanty, a retired employee of Central Water Resources Department and residing at Burla, gave stay order on the election till further order. At the same time, the court gave four weeks’ time to the State Government to place its reply on the allegations of Mohanty as regards reservation in 41 wards and preparation of electoral list.
Justice Biswanth Rath hearing the writ petition nullified the entire process of ward reconstitution and reservation till further orders from the court. It needs to be mentioned that the newly formed corporation comprises areas of Sambalpur Municipality, two NACs of Burla and Hirakud and nearby 12 Gram Panchayats of Dhankauda and Maneswar blocks. But from the very beginning, allegations were there on ward reconstitution and reservation for SC, ST and OBC categories. Reservations were for more than 50 per cent of the total seats and the general candidates were not prepared to take it easy.
Burla, a town of the intelligentsia of district with a number of universities, medical college and other institutions of both State and Central Government, had all its seats reserved for the ST, SC and OBC that sparked off virulent resentment from the very beginning. Whereas, Hirakud, an industrial town, has four seats for the general candidates out of total five. Hence, a legal proceeding against the anomaly was quite imminent and that happened finally with stay order from the High Court.