North DMC meeting set for fireworks

The meeting of the house of North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday is set to witness a stormy session as municipal commissioner, under pressure from Delhi government, has listed the oath ceremony of nominated councillors as urgent business which the ruling BJP is opposed to.

‘We are still awaiting the reply of our letters to Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung in which we have challenged the validity of the alderman (nominated councillors). We will finalise our strategy after consulting senior leaders of the party but one thing is certain that we will fight tooth and nail and not give up easily,’ said Mahinder Nagpal, leader of the house in North DMC. 

The LG had nominated 30 Congress workers as aldermen —10 in each corporation but the corporations have challenged the validity of the appointment on several grounds.

‘The appointment is against the norms of reservation and set standards of DMC Act. As per the DMC Act, 50 per cent seats are reserved for women and 27 per cent are reserved for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes (SC/ST) category while all the aldermen are from general category,’ said 

Azad Singh, mayor of North DMC. The leader of house in South DMC Subhash Arya, however said, ‘We will not organise the swearing in ceremony till the LG responds to our letter in which we have raised objections.’ he added. 

Arya also said that the BJP will not allow Congress a back-door entry in the house.