Lucknow: The decision taken by the LMC house to slap recovery notice on departments engaged in demolition and construction of memorials has put municipal officials in a tight spot.

LMC sources said that the officials are not able to comprehend on how to interpret the announcement as that would mean the municipal body being portrayed as isolated from CM's pet projects. Officials said that municipal commissioner is bound by the decision of the house while it slaps recovery notices on organisations like Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) and Rajkiya Nirman Nigam for using LMC's machines -- JCBs and earth movers -- in various memorials.

Talking to TOI, mayor Dinesh Sharma said that the demand was raised by the corporators of Congress and Samajwadi Party. "The house gave its nod to the demands. It's a routine affair,'' Sharma said, cautiously. He refrained from mentioning the name of any BJP corporator raising the demand. (Sharma, himself, is from BJP).

Sharma said that the demand was raised in reference to the government recovering dues from LMC account for the electricity used by the Lucknow Jal Sansthan (LJS) recently. The LMC had to cough nearly Rs 70 crore for the bills.

Municipal sources said that the decision of the house would now be forwarded to the LMC administration for perusal. Any drift from the decision would crucially demean the authority of the house which draws powers from an Act -- nagar nigam adhiniyam Act-1959 -- chalked out by the state legislature.

Mayor said that the accounts of the LMC machinery used by different departments have been maintained. "It would be in accordance with the accounts that the recovery notices would be sent,'' Sharma said.

Officials, however, maintained that it would not be so easy a task to slap recovery notices on any of the departments. A senior official said that any such gesture on the part of the LMC would certainly put it in an awkward position. He pointed out the statement of municipal commissioner in the house that the state government has been lending a helping hand to the municipality through the grant of funds on various occasions.

JAIPUR: A division bench of Rajasthan High Court has taken cognizance of a writ petition challenging the state’s decision to increase reservation for women in municipality elections to 50% from 33%. This was done with the recent introduction of the Municipality Act, 2009.

It was alleged in the petition that women in the country have already reached an equal status and so there is no need for further reservation.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Jagdish Bhalla and Justice M N Bhandari on Thursday directed the government authorities that “the process of reservation may be continued but shall not be finalised without the leave of the court.”