MC again proposes to delegate powers to Mayor to form 3 panels

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, January 28

The agenda of delegating powers to constitute Municipal Corporation’s three statutory committees, which stirred up a hornet’s nest in the last January’s MC House meeting not letting previous Mayor Sarbjit Kaur to form the panels, is again going to be presented in the House on Monday.

Due to the ruckus created by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the election of the BJP’s Mayoral candidate, the agenda had to be deferred last January. Thereafter, the committees could not be formed throughout the year. The Mayor later kept taking a plea that due to the late announcement of nominated councillors, panels could not be formed for the remaining part of 2022.

Now, the agenda to delegate the powers to new city Mayor Anup Gupta to constitute house tax, roads and water supply and sewerage disposal committees “as per the previous practice” will again be tabled in the House.

The AAP may again make it an issue and get support from the Congress too making it tough for the BJP leader to name the committee members.

The agenda to form the panels is cleared every year (except last year) in January. Later, the Mayor issues the names of the members. The three panels have financial powers and agendas approved by them for a certain amount can directly be implemented. There is no need to take such agendas to House meetings. The panels are formed for a period of one year.

Besides clearing development agendas, the panels also give issue-based recommendations for the House to consider. These are the most important MC panels after the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC).

Meanwhile, there will be no formal voting to elect the members of the MC’s Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) with only five requisite candidates filing their nominations today.

These all committees are co-terminus with the tenure of the Mayor. Councillors Harpreet Kaur Babla and Dalip Sharma, both from the BJP; Prem Lata and Neha from the AAP; and Gurpreet Singh Gabi of the Congress had filed nominations.