MCD to hold panel elections on June 2 and 3 after two-year logjam

The elections were earlier delayed following rising tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will hold elections for its 12 zonal wards committees on June 2, and for the standing committee on June 3, senior officials said on Monday.

MCD to hold panel elections on June 2 and 3 after two-year logjam

The elections, which were earlier delayed following rising tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, will now be conducted across two days. According to the order issued by the municipal secretariat, the elections for chairmen and deputy chairmen of the 12 administrative zones will take place on June 2 between 10am and 4pm. Each of Delhi’s 12 zones is overseen by a wards committee headed by a chairman.

On the same day, the MCD will also conduct elections for two vacant seats in the standing committee. These seats were vacated after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members Prem Chauhan (South Zone) and Punardeep Singh Sawhney (City-SP Zone) were elected to the Delhi Assembly. A third seat, which fell vacant after BJP’s Gajender Singh Drall won from Mundka, is likely to go to polls on June 3, officials said.

Currently, three out of 18 standing committee seats are vacant. The panel, which plays a key role in overseeing MCD’s finances, has not been fully functional for the last two-and-a-half years, leading to what officials described as a “policy paralysis”.

“Once elections to the zonal committees and the three standing committee seats are complete, the MCD will move towards reconstituting the standing committee and holding the chairman’s election, likely in the latter part of June,” an official said.

A senior municipal official pointed out that over 65 major infrastructure projects are currently stuck due to the absence of the standing committee, which alone is authorised to clear layout plans.

“The layout plans of major infrastructure projects can only be cleared by the standing committee, and they’ve been pending in the town planning department because of this prolonged political and legal stalemate,” the official said.

Last year, the Lieutenant Governor had to intervene to grant powers to the municipal commissioner for clearing several critical waste management projects, in the absence of a functional standing committee.

These included biomining of legacy waste at the Okhla ( ₹156.4 crore), Bhalswa ( ₹223.5 crore), and Ghazipur ( ₹223.5 crore) landfills; finalising the rate and contractor for the collection and transportation of municipal and construction & demolition waste ( ₹1,137.9 crore); setting up a municipal solid waste facility at Narela Bawana ( ₹604.2 crore); and finalising the rate and agency for silt biomining at the Singhola dumping site ( ₹46.1 crore).