3 years on, Chandigarh municipal corporation finally gets three sub-committees

AAP-led city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor has included nine councillors from all parties in each committee, which will meet once a month to discuss and approve agendas below ₹25 lakh

Finally, the three statutory committees on road, house tax assessment, water supply and sewerage disposal have been constituted for the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC).

The mayor needs to constitute nine special sub-committees and three statutory committees, soon after taking charge in January. (HT File)

AAP-led city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor has included nine councillors from all parties in each committee, which will meet once a month to discuss and approve agendas below ₹25 lakh.

Notably, the mayor needs to constitute nine special sub-committees and three statutory committees, soon after taking charge in January.

The panels are formed for one year to coincide with the mayor’s tenure.

The nine special sub-committees are formed on sanitation, environment and city beautification, electricity, fire and emergency services, apni mandi and day market, women empowerment, enforcement, slum colonies and village development and art, culture and sports.

The three statutory committees have financial powers of ₹25 lakh each, while the nine sub-committees can take up matters worth ₹15 lakh each. The finance and contract committee (F&CC) has financial powers of ₹50 lakh.

However, this is the first time in this five-year term of MC that these statutory committees have been formed. Dhalor is yet to form the remaining nine sub-committees. During the tenure of BJP mayors Sarabjit Kaur and Anup Gupta in 2022 and 2023, no committee was formed despite Opposition’s protests.

Listing out the members of the committees, the mayor said, “In the roads committee, councillors Suman Devi, Saurabh Joshi, Darshana, Prem Lata, Taruna Mehta, Manaur, Nirmala Devi, Gurcharanjit Singh, Satinder Singh Sidhu, have been included. Water supply and sewerage disposal committee include Gurpreet Singh, Jasbir Singh, Sachin Galav, Anju Katyal, Jaswinder Kaur, Darshana, Dalip Sharma, Jasmanpreet Singh and Mohinder Kaur. The committee on house tax assessment include Yogesh Dhingra, Ponam, Hardeep Singh, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, Damanpreet Singh, Jasbir Singh, Sachin Galav, Rajinder Sharma and Ramneek Singh Bedi.”

He added that he had been asking the BJP to suggest names for the committees. “However, it has been months, but the party has not been recommending names,” he said.