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BJP members elected MCD standing committee chairperson and VC
BJP's Satya Sharma and Sunder Singh elected chairperson and vice-chairperson of Delhi's MCD standing committee, aiming for development after 2.5 years.
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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Satya Sharma and Sunder Singh were elected the chairperson and vice-chairperson of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) standing committee on Thursday. All 18 members of the standing committee cast their votes.
Sharma was elected with 11 votes while her opponent from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Praveen Kumar got seven votes. Singh was elected with 11 votes while the AAP’s Mohini Jeenwal got seven votes.
“No development work has taken place in the past two-and-a-half years but now positive steps will be taken toward development, and everyone’s cooperation will be essential. Our goal is to work with dedication to make Delhi clean and beautiful,” Sharma said after the election.
“The standing committee could not be formed for the past 2.5 years due to legal tussles between the BJP and the AAP. This resulted in major development plans remaining stuck but now all members will work together to provide better civic facilities to the residents of Delhi,” said mayor Shri Raja Iqbal Singh.
The standing committee is a powerful panel that controls MCD’s purse strings. It comprises 18 members, 12 of whom are elected by zonal ward committees, and the remaining six are directly elected by the house.
A senior MCD official said that the MCD commissioner has the power to clear projects up to ₹5 crore, but the standing committee is needed to approve larger projects besides layout plans for projects such as a new DTC township in Hari Nagar, hostel towers for Delhi University, IIFT Maidangarhi and another tower on DDU Marg near Press building.
In the absence of the key panel, MCD has been forced to provide extensions to private operators in multiple cases, including the contract to manage garbage in the central zone, which covers VIP pockets. This also led to delays in the bio-mining of landfills. The corporation has been unable to hire a private operator for Delhi’s first pet park in Jangpura, a toll tax collection agency and set up the Shahjahanabad Museum and Interpretation Centre near Lahori Gate.
