Chaos mars MCD House session

The House session of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Thursday descended into turmoil as AAP councillors repeatedly disrupted proceedings, forcing Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh to adjourn the meeting minutes after it had started.

The session, which began at 2:29 pm, was overshadowed by chaos from the outset. Leader of the House Parvesh Wahi initiated the proceedings with a motion of thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allocating Rs 11,000 crore to the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) project, a major infrastructure initiative aimed at easing traffic congestion and reducing pollution across Delhi. However, as soon as the motion was read, AAP councillors stormed into the well of the House shouting slogans of “vote chor” and derailed the discussion.

The uproar followed serious allegations of corruption levelled a day earlier by councillor Pankaj Luthra against an MCD Deputy Commissioner. AAP members demanded immediate action and refused to allow the House to function until their demands were addressed.

Amid the sloganeering, another flashpoint emerged when Indraprastha Vikas Party (IVP) leader Mukesh Goyal objected to the omission of several key incidents from the condolence and accident reports presented at the start of the session. Goyal pointed out that the reports failed to mention the recent passing away of former MCD Mayor Rajesh Gehlot, who served as councillor from 2007 to 2017. He also highlighted the Daryaganj building collapse, which claimed three lives, and the drowning of a boy in a Shalimar Bagh swimming pool — both of which fell under the MCD’s jurisdiction.

“How can these incidents be left out? They directly concern the civic body and demand acknowledgment,” Goyal told The Tribune.

Councillor Anil Tyagi was later given the floor to raise issues, but Opposition benches immediately created a ruckus, further stalling proceedings. At 2:46 pm, Leader of Opposition Ankush Narang attempted to make his intervention, only to be interrupted by the Mayor, who accused him of “talking about irrelevant matters.”

“If you will talk bekaar ki baatein, we will not listen. Only talk about the issues pertaining to Delhi,” the Mayor said during the exchange. Narang responded, “I am trying to talk about a councillor of Delhi,” prompting another round of sloganeering by AAP members, who rushed to the well of the House in protest.

As chaos ensued, Mayor Singh warned the councillors: “If you don’t listen to me and keep creating chaos, I will have to adjourn the House.” By 2:50 pm, with disorder showing no signs of abating, the Mayor allowed Wahi to read the agenda before adjourning the meeting at 2:52 pm. Several items of business were passed hurriedly without debate.

Later in the day, Mayor Singh addressed a press conference flanked by Standing Committee chairperson Satya Sharma and Leader of the House Parvesh Wahi. He defended the motion of thanks to the Prime Minister, saying it had been unanimously passed, and accused AAP councillors of adopting “dual-faced and obstructive behaviour”.

“Despite the positive intent of the proceedings, AAP once again disrupted the House. Their actions show that they neither support development nor care about public welfare,” Singh said.

Wahi further pointed to councillor Anil Tyagi’s proposal to replace sodium street lights with LED lights in rural areas as another example of development work that AAP prevented from being discussed due to its disruptions.

Sharma, meanwhile, argued that most councillors were eager to raise issues related to their wards but were prevented from doing so because of AAP’s “deliberate strategy” of creating disturbances. “Even AAP councillors who wanted to speak could not do so. Many are internally frustrated with their party’s direction,” she claimed.