City councillors take oath; mayoral poll on January 12

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 1

All 35 councillors, including 26 elected and nine nominated, took oath at a special MC House meeting today. The ceremony was held at the new assembly hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Ajit Balaji Joshi, Deputy Commissioner, Chandigarh, administrated the oath to the councillors. Nominated councilors took the oath first. This was the first time that an MC House was convened for the ceremony.

On the occasion, the Deputy Commissioner announced that the poll for posts of the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor would be held on January 12. The candidates for the posts will have to file nomination papers up to January 7.

During the ceremony, a majority of the councillors took oath in Hindi and Punjabi while Shakti Prakash Devshali took the oath in Sanskrit. Gurbux Rawat, Devinder Singh Babla and Rajesh Gupta Bittu took the oath in English. City MP Kirron Kher was also present on the occasion.

Less rush was witnessed at the visitors’ gallery as the MC issued only one guest pass to every councillor for the ceremony. Supporters of the councillors watched the entire proceedings live on an LED screen at the pandal erected in the parking area of the MC.

Satypal Jain, Additional Solicitor General of India, Municipal Commissioner B Purusharth and Rajiv Gupta, Additional Deputy Commissioner, were present on the occasion.

Babla objects to mayoral poll date

At the first House meeting, Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla questioned as to why the election of the Mayor was not held in the first MC House meeting as per tradition. Citing rules under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, he said the election of the Mayor should have been be held at the first meeting of the house.

On Day 1, councillors flaunt elegance, style

Gone are the days when the councilors were not worried about their dress. The time seems to have changed when newly-elected city councillors took the oath at the new assembly hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation today.

They added grace, elegance and style to otherwise mundane proceedings. While a majority of the nominated councilors wore suits, the elected ones had varied choices.

While some preferred a white “kurta-payjama”, others wore jackets and suits of different colours. Davesh Moudgil chose the traditional white “kurta-payjama” with a saffron and green angavastram around his neck.

Moudgil usually wears a “kurta-payjama”, made of the Madhubani cotton with a black khadi silk jacket. Moudgil said he specially ordered a saffron angavastram, symbolising colours of the party, for the ceremony. Arun Sood, former Mayor, was looking different with his traditional “bandhgala” navy blue suit.

Charanjiv Singh, a nominated councillor, wore a black suit while Shakti Prakash Devshali took the oath in a white “kurta-payjama” with a jacket of purple color. Dalip Sharma wore a blue jacket with a white “kurta-payjama”

A majority of women councilors were spotted in saris. Sunita Dhawan, Gurbux Rawat, Asha Jaswal and nominated councillors Dr Jyotsna Wig chose to wear saris. Some the women councillors wore a black coat.