E-Paper
On last day of office, Chandigarh’s outgoing mayor Rajesh Kalia pitches for five-year tenure
Currently, the mayor of Chandigarh is elected every year by majority votes of the councillors.
Addressing the media on the last day of his tenure, outgoing mayor Rajesh Kalia pitched for direct election of mayor with five-year tenure on Haryana pattern or at least two and half year tenure on the lines of different states and UTs.
Currently, the mayor of Chandigarh is elected every year by majority votes of the councillors.
Kalia, however, found himself in a fix when outgoing senior deputy mayor Hardeep Singh, who is also the president of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)’s Chandigarh unit, stirred a row saying no MP in Chandigarh wants to empower the mayoral office as they fear it will decrease his or her power.
“Chandigarh municipal corporation has been in existence for 20 years now. Why is it that no MP so far has thought of or made any efforts toward giving more executive power to the mayor or increasing their tenure? The reason is not hard to guess,” Hardeep said.
As Kalia faced a volley of follow-up media questions on whether Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, who is in office since 2014, was against increasing the mayor’s tenure, he said he did not agree with Hardeep’s viewpoint.
“But I am certainly in favour of direct election of mayor in Chandigarh so that he/she can serve the city well,” he said. He said he had already requested Sanjay Tandon to consider his suggestion.
Next election will be in November 2021. A lot of changes are expected this year; first in the increase of wards after merger of 13 villages with the MC and then the delimitation of areas.
I AM A CHANGED MAN NOW: KALIA
Enlisting his achievements, Kalia said that he was a changed man after serving the mayoral chair for one year. He said that he certainly had a tainted past but everyone makes mistake in life: “I am happy that one year of staying in mayoral office gave me an opportunity to wash off my past,” he said, adding, he would continue to work as city’s nagar sewak.
“It happens only in BJP that a tea seller can become the country’s Prime Minister and a rag picker is elevated to the post of mayor,” said Kalia.
He said that he was happy to have streamlined the waste management reforms in the city. “Although it was delayed, it will surely be implemented in due course and Chandigarh will definitely improve its Swachh Survekshan ranking,” he said.
Kalia said that he was leaving the office highly satisfied that he could start the legacy mining project to remove 5 lakh metric tonnes of waste from Dadumajra open dumping ground. However, the MC needs to streamline the working of the waste processing plant, he added.
Kalia wants his successor to work on changing the old sewerage and water pipelines that were laid down when Chandigarh had a population of only 2 lakh, which has now increased by five to six times.
