Chandigarh MC table agendas row continues; AAP seeks withdrawal of July 31 approvals

The confrontation over table agendas hurriedly passed during the last General House meeting of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation continued on Tuesday, with former Congress councillors and Mayors demanding that House meetings be conducted as per the Municipal Act.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought withdrawal of all table agendas passed during the July 31, 2026, meeting.

The demands were raised during separate meetings with Municipal Corporation Commissioner Amit Kumar.

Former Mayor Ravinder Singh Pali, Harphool Kalyan and former councillors Chander Mukhi Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Badheri, Darshan Garg and Satish Kainth met the Commissioner and sought his immediate intervention to ensure that the working of the General House of the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh is conducted strictly as per the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, and the rules framed under it.

They alleged that rules were being compromised, setting a dangerous precedent for the democratic functioning of House meetings.

As per the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, once an agenda is placed before the General House, no authority of the Corporation has the power to withdraw or annul it. An agenda can only be passed or rejected by a majority vote of the House, they said.

They further alleged that directions were issued by the BJP Core Committee to withdraw “table agendas”, calling it direct interference by a political party in the constitutional functioning of the Corporation and “wholly illegal and ultra vires the Act”.

They also raised concern over what they termed a new and disturbing trend of tender allotment matters being brought before the General House for discussion or approval.

As per the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, and established rules of business, once policy and estimates are approved by the House, execution, including floating, evaluation and award of tenders, lies exclusively with the executive, they said.

“The House is a policy-making body, not an executing agency,” they said, adding that if the House were to take up routine tender allotments, the logical corollary would be for all tendering work and daily executive functions to be handed over to councillors instead of the large strength of officers maintained by the Corporation.

Meanwhile, AAP Chandigarh president Vijaypal Singh raised an objection before the Commissioner over the non-inclusion of table agendas in the forthcoming General House meeting scheduled for August 20.

AAP leaders demanded the withdrawal of all table agendas, including the Rs 227-crore agenda passed hurriedly during the July 31 General House meeting of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Singh demanded that all table agendas be withdrawn immediately and brought before the House again through the regular procedure.