The BJP won the last vacant seat of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's 18-member Standing Committee unopposed on Friday as the councillors of the ruling AAP and Congress boycotted the election. The BJP's candidate Sunder Singh got all 115 votes of the party's councillors while the AAP's Nirmala Kumari did not receive any vote. The standing committee is the highest decision-making body of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. With this poll result, the BJP now has 10 members in the panel while the ruling AAP has only eight. This was the first time that the election was held without the participation of AAP and Congress councillors. The seat had fallen vacant after BJP councillor Kamaljeet Sehrawat was elected as the Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi.
Earlier, the election for the standing committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was postponed on Thursday as the house meeting was adjourned
Councillors Preeti, Sarita Phogat, and Praveen Kumar defected to BJP, lowering AAP's count in MCD to 125, just below the majority mark
A crucial day awaits the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Thursday, as the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP vie for dominance in the key Standing Committee elections. The election, set to fill the sole vacancy in the 18-member Standing Committee, the MCD's highest decision-making body, will take place on Thursday. This vacancy was created after BJP councillor Kamaljeet Sehrawat resigned following her election from the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat earlier this year. In a setback for the AAP on Wednesday, three of its councillors switched sides and joined the BJP just a day before the Standing Committee election. Dilshad Colony Garden councillor Preeti, Green Park councillor Sarita Phogat, and Madanpur Khadar East councillor Praveen Kumar joined the BJP changing the numbers dynamics in the corporation. The BJP said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has lost majority in the MCD House and hence the "moral authority" to be in power. "The ruling Aam Aadmi Party has today lost majority among
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena late on Tuesday night asked MCD commissioner to notify the appointment of deputy commissioners as presiding officers for MCD ward committee polls after Mayor Shelly Oberoi did not do so. The last-minute intervention by the LG using special powers granted under the DMC Act, and in "larger public interest", ends uncertainty over the polls that are scheduled to be held on Wednesday, September 4. The LG passed the order soon after a central gazette notification was made public which granted absolute powers to the Delhi lieutenant governor to constitute any authority, board and commission such as the Delhi Commission for Women and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission. Following the LG's directions, the MCD commissioner passed an order notifying deputy commissioners as the presiding officers for the polls. The commissioner directed the Municipal Secretary to take necessary steps to hold the elections as per the schedule. "The Mayor has...not ..
The polls for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's ward committee and standing committee will be webcast live on the civic body's official YouTube channel on Wednesday. "The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has completed all the preparations for the webcasting of the elections for ward committees and standing committee members, which will be held tomorrow. The MCD will broadcast the live coverage of the election through its official YouTube channel," an official statement said on Tuesday. The MCD's ward committee elections for the appointment of chairpersons and deputy chairpersons for each of the 12 zonal bodies will take place on September 4. Elections in six zones City and SP Zone, Rohini Zone, Najafgarh Zone, West Zone, South Zone, and Central Zone will be held between 10 am and 4 pm in Hansraj Gupta Auditorium at the civic body headquarters. In the remaining six zones, including Karol Bagh Zone, Keshav Puram Zone, Shahdara South Zone, Shahdara North Zone, Civil Lines Zone, and
A demolition drive was carried out on Friday by authorities in southeast Delhi's Okhla Phase-2 JJ cluster under heavy security arrangements, officials said. Residents alleged that they have been living here for many years and that they were not given enough time to take out their belongings. Dheeraj, a resident of the area, said that they received a notice regarding the demolition two days ago. "They came here with their bulldozer around 10 am. They did not give us time to take our belongings from our homes. Around 50 shanties are being razed here. We have been living in the area for past many years," he said. Anil Kumar, another resident, said, "Several families were living here for last 40 years. We have nowhere to go. We did not get time to arrange an alternate place where can we shift our stuff." According to police, adequate security personnel have been provided to maintain law and order situation in the area during the demolition, which is still underway.
Five MCD councillors of the Aam Aadmi Party joined BJP in the presence of senior leaders of the party's Delhi unit. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, in a media briefing during the joining, alleged that these councillors were troubled due to pressure to indulge in corruption and gather crowds for AAP leaders. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi councillors who switched sides to the BJP included Ramchandra (Ward 28), Pawan Sehrawat (Ward 30), Mamata Pawan (Ward 177), Sugandha Bidhuri (Ward 178) and Manju Nirmal of Ward 180, a statement from the Delhi BJP said. BJP MPs Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Yogender Chandolia and senior party leader Arvinder Singh Lovely were present at the event.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that it will not demolish any illegal structures in northwest Delhi's Bhalswa Dairy colony till August 16, when the court is scheduled to take up a related matter. The statement was made by the MCD's counsel when a counsel representing residents of the dairy colony approached the court apprising it that MCD bulldozers with heavy police force have reached the area for demolition. The matter was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela. Taking note of the MCD's counsel oral statement, the court said it will take up the matter on August 16, when it will also hear a petition regarding the state of dairies in the city. In July, the court had directed the authorities to ensure that unauthorised construction in all dairy colonies in the national capital is removed and asked them to take immediate steps for shifting dairies from Bhalswa to Ghogha dairy colony wit
A new set of rules by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which requires performing art groups to go through a lengthy paper trail in addition to a licensing fee of Rs 1,000 for each performance, has directors and performers rattled for the entailing financial and procedural burden. The recently launched unified online portal for eating, lodging and boarding establishments in the national capital also asks event organisers for dance, theatre and music to submit clearance from municipal corporations, Delhi fire service, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, and Delhi Police, apart from the licensing fees of Rs 1,000. Faced with this new financial burden, theatre directors and groups called out the MCD for the illogical and unethical rules and demanded that these expenses should be borne by auditoriums. Terming the rules an attempt to curb freedom of expression, theatre director Arvind Gaur of Asmita theatre group said that it will put a financial burden of nearly Rs 40,000-45,000 on a
MCD also issued notices to coaching centers and property owners for misuse of property
The CBI has taken over the probe into the deaths of three civil services aspirants at a coaching centre in Delhi, officials said on Wednesday. Shreya Yadav (25) from Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana and Nevin Delvin (24) from Kerala drowned after water gushed into the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar here following heavy rains on July 27. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case from Delhi Police following a Delhi High Court order. The court had castigated police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) over the students' deaths, saying it was unable to fathom how they could not come out of the basement. It also sought to know whether the doors were blocked or staircases narrow. "What's your line of looking? How did the children drown? You have done an investigation now. We are on August 2. Why were they not able to come out of the basement? It doesn't get flooded immediately. Water takes at least two-three minutes to fil
The apex court pronounced its verdict on the Delhi government's plea after reserving it for nearly 15 months
The civic body sealed the two basements in the Shahdara South Zone and Najafagarh Zone, according to a press release
No city in India is changing as much as Delhi. Migrants continue to be its backbone as before
The plea seeks accountability from the contractor responsible for the drain and requests a comprehensive audit of ongoing drain construction projects, including flood mitigation measures
The tragic death of aspirants highlighted the urgent need for stricter regulations and enforcement to prevent future tragedies
The MCD sealed seven more basements of coaching centres in Central Delhi's Old Rajendra Nagar and one each in North West Delhi's Rajdhani Enclave and East Delhi's Preet Vihar on Tuesday, following the death of three UPSC aspirants in the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle. With this, the civic body has now cracked down on 29 basements of coaching institutes since Sunday for allegedly operating in violation of the MCD building by-laws. According to an official statement, the coaching centres that faced action in Rajinder Nagar on Tuesday include the IAS Gurukul Tathastu, Officers IAS Academy, Forum IAS, Psyche World IAS, Sanchetna IAS, Prisha IAS, Path Academy and Drishti IAS. In the MCD's latest sealing drive in Preet Vihar and Rajdhani Enclave, two basements of coaching centres faced action -- Sanskriti Academy and Pratham Institute, respectively, it said. The action comes in the wake of flooding in the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle in Rajinder Nagar that led to the death of
UPSC aspirants' deaths: Hearing a petition seeking a high-level probe, the HC bench said multi-storey buildings were being allowed to operate but there was no proper drainage
Delhi authorities deflect blame for Rau's coaching center deaths onto an SUV driver, raising questions about MCD's accountability amid allegations of drainage system failures and regulatory lapses