Sack MCG Mayor: 19 councilors write to Divisional Commissioner

Gurugram: A big showdown has begun to unfold at the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). Citing that Mayor Madhu Azad has become the rubber stamp of corrupt and inept public administrators, 19 councilors on Tuesday have signed an official letter to Divisional Commissioner Ashok Sangwan to sack Mayor Azad.

In a major concern for the Azad who was appointed in 2017, the figure is just five short achieving the two-third majority which will make it mandatory for the mayor to be sacked as per the law.

It is important to note that MCG has a total of 35 councilors. In this, there are 20 independent councilors and 14 representatives are from BJP while one is from Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Surprisingly, councilors from BJP, the party to which Azad belongs, have come forward and demanded her removal.

Ever since the new councilors assumed office in October 2017, most of the elected representatives have openly expressed their angst of how their powers and influence have been gradually declining.

On Tuesday, however, the chorus of anger by the councilor grew in the board meeting that was convened after a period of three months.

The councilors are demanding that they should be given the right to prepare the annual confidentiality report (ACR) of the joint engineers. They also want to be the part of the process of awarding tenders which amount to Rs 1 crore.

Mentioning that cleanliness levels in the city are deteriorating by the day, the elected representatives are also demanding the scrapping of the contract of Eco- Green. The Chinese company was entrusted with the responsibility of MCG to collect and recycle the waste in the city.

Recently, the company was fined Rs 25 lakh on the order of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for not picking up the garbage from the vacant site of Old Judicial complex.

Various cases of corruption that amounts to recruiting a ghost employees, awarding tenders to fake contractors and tacit backing to land mafia has been making rounds. This finally resulted in the Haryana government ordering a special audit of the accounts of the richest municipal body in Haryana whose annual budget is Rs 2,300 crore.

"There has been no work which has been done today by the MCG that is being run by the corrupt and inept officials. They get a cover because they work from behind while we who have been elected representatives are facing the flak from the voters. There is a deliberate attempt to wane down the powers of the councilors and the real authority lies in the power of the officials who are not performing their tasks well. Unfortunately, the mayor is supporting them," said RS Rathee, the ward

councilor.

However, when contacted by Millennium Post, Madhu Azad declined to comment on the issue.