North Corporation had demanded a merger of two zones — Sadar Paharganj and City zone, and the creation of a new zone — Keshavpuram.
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation Thursday passed a proposal condemning the state government for rejecting its proposal suggesting a merger of two zones under the civic body, and creating a new zone in its jurisdiction. The Delhi government had notified the zones for South and East corporations on Wednesday, but rejected the proposal moved by the North Corporation.
North mayor Preeti Agarwal announced that if the Delhi government does not notify the proposal on zonal boundaries within the next two days, councillors will stage a protest outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence. While the Congress supported the resolution, the House witnessed sloganeering with AAP members assembling in the well of the House, opposing the proposal.
North Corporation had demanded a merger of two zones — Sadar Paharganj and City zone, and the creation of a new zone — Keshavpuram. Accusing the state government of “playing politics”, the mayor stated that the proposal was rejected on “flimsy” grounds. “We will wait for two days and if the government fails to clear the proposal, then we will stage protest outside the CM’s house. We had proposed to merge two zones in order to balance the number of wards in each zone. It is important that each zone should have even distribution of resources and manpower, which will happen only when the number of wards is balanced in each zone,” the mayor said.
The delay in declaration of zonal boundaries has caused a delay in setting up of statutory committees in the corporation, thereby causing a policy paralysis. North Corporation commissioner, P K Gupta, said that as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, the civic body is authorised to create its zones and the government only has to notify the proposal.
The mayor also directed the commissioner to make provision of Rs 25 lakh for Councillor Development Fund for each constituency immediately. She issued the directions Thursday as “councillors are not able to take up civic and development issues due to non formation of statutory committees”.
The corporation has also warned that if the proposals are not cleared within a week, it will move court. Meanwhile, leader of opposition and AAP leader Rakesh Kumar slammed the BJP for interfering in the government’s work rather than of focusing on civic issues.
