E-Paper
MCDs elect mayors, deputy mayors
New Delhi: The three Municipal Corporations elected mayors and deputy mayors on Wednesday. Sadar Bazar councillor Jai Prakash has been elected mayor from North Delhi
New Delhi: The three Municipal Corporations elected mayors and deputy mayors on Wednesday. Sadar Bazar councillor Jai Prakash has been elected mayor from North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Shahdara councillor Nirmal Jain from East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and Anamika Mithilesh from South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).
Ritu Goel (North DMC), Hari Prakash Bahadur (EDMC) and Subhash Bhadana (SDMC) have been elected for the post of deputy mayors.
Newly elected north mayor Prakash had been vice-president of Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was also standing committee chairperson of the north civic body. EDMC mayor Jain was the leader of the House in the corporation while SDMC mayor Anamika Mithilesh is a councillor from Hari Nagar ward and was a member of SDMC standing committee in 2017. The outgoing mayors are Avtar Singh (north corporation), Sunita Kangra (SDMC) and Anju Kamalkant (EDMC).
The North and South Corporations each have 104 councillors, while the EDMC has 64 members. The BJP has a clear majority in all three municipal corporations so the nominees for the post of mayor and deputy mayors were elected unopposed.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act provides for the election of mayor and deputy mayor from among the councillors of the civic bodies in the first meeting of the House every year. Mayors and deputy mayors get a year-long term in the Union Territories.
This year elections of mayor and deputy mayor were to be conducted in April but the process got delayed by two months due to coronavirus pandemic.
Highlighting his priorities, Prakash said that fighting Covid-19 pandemic in close coordination with the state and central governments will be his top priority. “I am committed to working for the inclusive development of the north corporation. We will provide all possible support to the state government to fight the problem of coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
After taking over the new assignment, SDMC mayor Anamika said that her foremost priority will be effectively dealing with coronavirus pandemic. “In view of the financial challenges being faced by the SDMC, we need to focus on a better revenue generation plan to deal with the situation and try to make the south corporation self-sustainable rather expecting financial assistance from Delhi government,” she said in a statement.
Five nominations were filled for the three vacant posts of the member in the standing committee. BJP councillors Rajdutt Gehlot and Tulsi Joshi and AAP councillor Jitender Kumar have been declared as elected members of the SDMC standing committee.
