On the cards: Bill proposes to have mayor in council for Chandigarh

Sources said that a BJP member will be moving this agenda item in the General House. The move comes when the city has to go to polls in December.

The mayor in council is being demanded on the pattern of Punjab where a mayor has a five-year term. Every Union Territory, including Chandigarh, at the moment has a mayor which has a one-year term only, which is considered too less to execute any works.

It was said that every time till the time a mayor settles down and understands the nuances of his work, the tenure ends. A mayor in Chandigarh also doesn’t have any powers considering the set-up.

In 2016 too, several members from residents’ welfare associations, representatives of political parties and many others had got together on a forum called ‘People’s Parliament’ and had demanded the mayor in council.

During the visit of the then Home Minister too, political parties and their representatives had been demanding that the mayor’s term be enhanced to five years.

In January every year, Chandigarh sees mayoral polls. A mayor is elected from amongst the elected representatives in the 26-member House. To become a mayor, a candidate needs 14 votes out of 27. The nine nominated councillors do not have voting rights. One vote is that of the MP who is the ex-officio member of the House. Of the 26 elected councillors, at present, the BJP has a majority in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation with 20 councillors. There are five Congress councillors while one is from the SAD.

In the coming polls, there will be 35 councillors as new wards have been formed.

With mayor in council, the mayor will be directly elected by the public.

It is said that with this, the mayor would even hold accountability when people of the city would vote for him. On a similar pattern, Panchkula also elected its corporation and mayor for five years.