Newly-elected Haryana mayors spell out priorities

The newly elected BJP mayors of five cities of Haryana Thursday talked about their priorities, with the youngest mayor calling for decongestion of the voluminous traffic passing through Panipat.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had on Wednesday swept the mayoral elections in Panipat, Hisar, Karnal, Yamunanagar and Rohtak.

Among the winning candidates are two women-- 25-year-old Avneet Kaur from Panipat, the youngest mayor, and 48-year-old Renu Bala Gupta from Karnal.

Avneet had registered a massive victory over her nearest rival Anshu Kaur, who was backed by a local Congress leader. The BJP candidate won by a huge margin of 74,940 votes.

Spelling out her priorities after the win, Avneet said Thursday, "My priorities will be to work towards decongesting the voluminous traffic of Panipat. Among other tasks are covering Panipat's drain number 1".

"We will also hold municipal corporation meetings after every 15 days wherein problems relating to the wards will be discussed," she said.

About holding the first direct elections for mayor's post, Avneet said, "It will help mayors focus more on the tasks at hand. The focus will also be towards development as against in the past when some councilors used to indulge in