Jaipur: Mayor may appoint new chairmen for panels

TNN / Mar 5, 2019, 10:24 IST

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Jaipur: Mayor may appoint new chairmen for panels

Mayor Vishnu Lahta

JAIPUR: Politics at the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has intensified over the re-appointment of chairmen of the working committees. A day after newly appointed, independent mayor Vishnu Lahta hinted that he would appoint new chairmen, former mayor and Sanganer MLA Ashok Lahoty accused him for taking an unconstitutional step.
Lahoty said, “The Congress government in its manifesto had mentioned to strengthen the local bodies.

However, its continuous interference using it administrative power is an attempt to stall the ongoing work. The BJP government will not allow this to happen.”

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Infighting has taken its toll on the work of the fifth board of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC). For the third time in four-and-a-half years, board members indulged in yet another tug-of-war. The board had failed to form working committees in the first two years and put on back-burner major concerns of the city such as sanitation, sewerage, roads, street lights and gardens. The constitution of these committees in May last year had rekindled hope that work would finally get priority. However, in less than a year, the municipal corporation is likely to find itself back to square one as the mayor has announced dissolving existing committees. If the elected representatives of the JMC hope to gain public goodwill, they need to cease fighting for petty political gains for the last six months before the next municipal polls. Instead, they should focus on catering to the needs of the city and enhancing public facilities. The residents have suffered enough.

Speculations are rife, existing committees will be dissolved by Wednesday to accommodate Congress councillors who extended support to Lahta to win mayor election against the BJP candidate. Moreover, as post of all the committee chairperson is held by the BJP councillors, it’s nearly impossible for an independent mayor to receive work approval from the committees.

Despite having maximum councillors in the board, Lahta won the JMC mayoral elections after becoming a rebel, defeating his own party’s candidate, Manoj Bhardwaj, by one vote. Sources said, to return the favour to Congress for the support, Lahta has forwarded the proposal to constitute new committees. “Legal advice has been sought by the mayor to reconstitute the committees. In name of the committee chairperson were also discussed by the state transport minister, Pratap Singh Khachriyawas.”

With only seven months remaining for the municipal elections, dissolving the standing committees due to politics would once again lead to hampering of public works. “In past four and half years, only single meeting of building planning committee (BPC) was held,” said a source.
Several fire incidents occurred in the past few months as JMC’s defunct fire committee stood mute witness. People are scared that one again issues like door-to-door garbage collection, cleaning of drains before the rainy season, fixing hanging overhead power lines, repairing roads would haunt them.
However, many independent and Congress councillors who never got a chance to become committee members are looking at becoming chairpersons of working committees.

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