Admn mulls increasing Chandigarh Mayor’s tenure to 5 yrs

The UT Administration is considering enhancing the tenure of the Chandigarh Mayor from one year to five years. Sources said the offices of the Local Government Department and the Deputy Commissioner are working on the proposal and examining the models of other cities. They will send their comments and recommendations to the Government of India after approval of UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria.

The sources said the Centre had asked the Administration to send its comments on the representations made by Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari over the matter.

The MP, in his letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has strongly supported a five-year tenure for the Chandigarh Mayor.

He has also incorporated the proposal in the private Bill on Chandigarh, which he plans to introduce in Parliament in near future.

Tewari said the present one-year tenure of Mayor was a totally failed system. It gives little time for the Mayor to work on his ideas.

Since the formation of the Municipal Corporation, the city has witnessed over 30 mayors. There is a need to formulate a consensus on the issue.

The MP is also in favour of a system, under which a properly empowered “Mayor in Council” is directly elected by all electorate for a term of five years.

The tenure of Mayor had been fixed at one year when the MC was officially formed on May 24, 1994, by extending the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994.

Not only Tewari, many councillors and citizens are in favour of enhancing the tenure. Jasbir Singh Bunty, Senior Deputy Mayor, said the five-year tenure for the Mayor will ensure a proper development of the city.

A committee formed by the Cabinet Secretariat in 2018 had recommended five-year tenure for the Mayors of all UTs. It was formed under the chairmanship of the Secretary (Coordination Cabinet Secretariat) having all chief secretaries of UTs as its members. The committee also recommended not to give voting rights to nominated members of the MC House. However, the administration differed on both recommendations.

An MC official said if the Centre agreed to the five-year-tenure proposal, then a Bill for amending the Act would have to be presented in Parliament.