Mohali councillors to move court against Admn

Up in arms against the concerned officials for keeping both the coveted posts vacant for over 16 months, the elected councillors have termed it a “denial” of their constitutional rights and “negligence” of the district administration.

Neither the administration nor the Congress-supported ruling group of councillors in the MC seems to be bothered to hold the elections.

The office of MC senior vice-president, which was occupied by Rishav Jain, and junior vice-president, which was occupied by Harman Preet Singh Prince, had expired in August 2007. They were elected in August 2006 after the present House of the civic body was elected.

In a representation to Mohali Deputy Commissioner Rahul Bhandari, Councillor Kuljit Singh Bedi termed it the “murder” of democracy and said that he had also made a similar demand a couple of months ago but the district administration has still not taken any steps in this regard.

“If the process to hold the much-awaited elections are not initiated within a month, I along with my fellow municipal councillors will be forced to take a legal step against the district administration,” he added.

Though former Deputy Commissioner H I S Grewal in 2007, after receiving the information, had asked local SDM Raghbeer Kaur Khaira to convene a special MC meeting to hold the election for both the posts, but till yet, no such meeting has been called, following which both the posts are lying vacant.

In February, eight councillors —- Rajinder Parsad Sharma, Manjit Kaur, Usha Rani, Parkash Wati, Amteshwar Kaur, Suresh Kumar, Gian Chand and Gurmeet Singh —- had served a requisition under the provision of Section 25(2) of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, to the MC president Rajinder Singh Rana to convene a special meeting of the MC House for conducting the election of vice-presidents.

However, the Congress-supported MC president also had failed to exercise his powers to hold the elections.

In the House of 31 councillors, the ruling party claims to have the support of around 20 councillors along with the support of the local MLA, who is also an ex-officio member. Probably due to this, the state government was also delaying the removal of the MC president from his post on the charges of “misuse of power” months after the completion of his removal proceedings.

Deputy Commissioner Rahul Bhandari said he has asked Mohali SDM Raghbeer Kaur Khaira for why she has not yet conducted the elections despite being appointed as convener. “I have directed her to hold the elections without any further delay.”