Civic Government in Kolkata has started its journey with the enactment of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923. Later this Act was replaced by the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951. At last the Act of 1951 was replaced by a new Act namely the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, 1980. The name of 'Calcutta' has been converted to 'Kolkata' after enactment of the West Bengal Capital City (Change of Name) Act, 2001.
Powers and functions of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act are almost identical to that of the West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993 with the following major variations-
The number of wards of Kolkata
Municipal Corporation is fixed to 141, and the
boundaries of each ward of Kolkata Municipal
Corporation is fixed in scheduled II of the Act.
The Mayor is the First Citizen of
the Corporation. The administration of the
Corporation is run by the Mayor-in-Council
constituted the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and the
maximum of 10 other elected members of the
Corporation.
There is a Chairman, elected by
the Councilors who exercises the powers in the
Corporations which is similar to that of the Speaker
of the Legislative Assembly.
The Mayor nominates one of the
Councilors as the Deputy Mayor.
For further decentralization
there is a borough setup. Corporation constitutes 15
boroughs which are groups of contiguous wards. Each
borough committees civic administration in borough
areas are supervised by a borough committee
constituted by a Councilors of the wards of
concerned borough.
The Chief Administrative Officers
of the Corporation is the Municipal Commissioner.
The Corporation is empowered for
assessing the properties with in the Corporation
area, unless otherwise the directed by the State
Government, for the purpose of imposition of
property tax.
The Corporation is empowered to
fix the rates of various fees tolls and taxes in
there bugged estimate.
