High drama was witnessed at the first House meeting chaired by the Ambala mayor on Thursday where only eight out of the 20 councillors, all from the Haryana Janchetna Party (HJP), turned up in the absence of commissioner Parth Gupta and civic body officials.
Secretary Jarnail Singh has now called for a House meeting on February 23.
The eight members had protested outside the office of MC chief and raised slogans against local MLA Aseem Goel for “interfering in the corporation’s functioning”, while Gupta said, “It was not our meeting.”
Among the absentees were eight councillors of the BJP and two each from the Congress and the Haryana Democratic Front.
The members who attended the meeting put forward proposals and called for an action against those who remained absent, besides discussing issues such as cleanliness, state of community centres, and no dues certificate.
Mayor Shakti Rani Sharma belongs to the HJP and is the wife of political stalwart and former MLA Venod Sharma.
Interacting with media after the meeting, the mayor had said, “I wrote many letters to the commissioner to call for a meeting, but when he didn’t, I used my powers under the rules and called for it with a majority of 1/4th of the House.”
However, MLA Gupta said that “being unbiased” and taking into consideration the objection raised by eight other members (from the BJP), he had requested to reschedule the meeting. “I received the mayor’s letter on February 15 and there has to be a five-day gap before the meeting. Eight members had met me earlier and told me that neither had they received any letter nor were consulted. Moreover, the notice for the meeting has to be issued by the secretary of the MC, who has called the first meeting on February 23,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}However, MLA Gupta said that “being unbiased” and taking into consideration the objection raised by eight other members (from the BJP), he had requested to reschedule the meeting. “I received the mayor’s letter on February 15 and there has to be a five-day gap before the meeting. Eight members had met me earlier and told me that neither had they received any letter nor were consulted. Moreover, the notice for the meeting has to be issued by the secretary of the MC, who has called the first meeting on February 23,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, eight councillors from the BJP handed over a memorandum to city magistrate Aanchal Bhaskar in the name of DC Ashok Kumar Sharma, stating that “the meeting was called illegally to spread chaos” and there should be an action against the mayor.