Special House meet to address MC fiscal woes

Mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor has planned to convene a special House meeting around October 15 over growing financial crisis in the Municipal Corporation (MC). The meeting has been called to address the financial challenges stalling the city’s development projects and consider amendments to the MC Act to ensure fair and transparent mayoral elections.

The city’s development works have been at a standstill since May due to the financial crunch, with no new tenders being issued. During a House meeting held on September 26, BJP councillors had expressed a concern over the halted progress. They called for an all-party meeting to resolve the situation and find ways to restart the stalled projects.

Kanwarjeet Singh Rana, Leader of the Opposition, highlighted the delays in receiving administrative approvals, noting that no development-related work had been carried out in the past six months.

Former Mayor Anup Gupta urged Dhalor to prioritise revenue generation to prevent the ongoing fiscal crisis from further impeding the city's progress.

Further, the councillors also approved a resolution to form a special committee comprising officers, councillors, and legal experts to examine possible amendments to the MC Act to streamline the House proceedings and mayoral election procedures.

Dhalor had indicated that the committee would soon be formed and tasked with recommending changes to ensure free and fair elections to the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

The mayoral elections in Chandigarh are held annually between the end of December and early January. The first term is reserved for a woman candidate from general category, second for a general category candidate, third for a candidate from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, fourth for a woman from general category and the fifth for a general category candidate. There are no reserved categories for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.