Finally, Chandigarh MC forms three statutory sub-committees after 3-year delay

After a prolonged delay of nearly three years, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has finally constituted three statutory sub-committees on key issues related to roads, house tax assessment, and water supply and sewage disposal. These committees, which will meet once a month, are tasked with discussing and approving agendas up to Rs 25 lakh.

Mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, who is from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), stated that each committee had nine councillors. The statutory committees are crucial in ensuring that municipal issues are addressed efficiently. According to Dhalor, these committees should have been formed soon after his term began in January.

While roads committee has Suman Devi, Saurabh Joshi, Darshana, Prem Lata, Taruna Mehta, Manaur, Nirmala Devi, Gurcharanjit Singh and Satinder Singh Sidhu as members, the water supply and sewage disposal committee comprises Gurpreet Singh, Jasbir Singh, Sachin Galav, Anju Katyal, Jaswinder Kaur, Darshana, Dalip Sharma, Jasmanpreet Singh, and Mohinder Kaur. The house tax assessment committee consists of Yogesh Dhingra, Ponam, Hardeep Singh, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, Damanpreet Singh, Jasbir Singh, Sachin Galav, Rajinder Sharma, and Ramneek Singh Bedi.

In addition to the three statutory committees, the Mayor is responsible for constituting nine special sub-committees, which cover areas such as sanitation, environment, city beautification, electricity, fire and emergency services, women empowerment, enforcement, and development of slum colonies and villages, as well as art, culture, and sports. These sub-committees, when formed, will handle agenda items valued up to Rs 15 lakh. The Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) holds the highest financial power of Rs 50 lakh.

This is the first time during the current five-year term of the MC that statutory committees have been constituted. Previous mayors from the BJP, Sarabjit Kaur and Anup Gupta, had faced criticism from the opposition parties for failing to constitute these panels during their tenures.

Dhalor claimed that he had been waiting for months for the BJP to recommend names for these committees, but no suggestions were provided, further contributing to the delay in their formation.