The Hindu : New Delhi News : `MCD polls on time in March'

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Thursday, Jan 11, 2007
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`MCD polls on time in March'

Staff Reporter

Decision taken at the Coordination Committee meeting of the Delhi Congress

NEW DELHI: The Coordination Committee of the Delhi Congress on Wednesday resolved to hold elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on time in March this year so that the new House is constituted by the due date.

The meeting was chaired by the All-India Congress Committee general secretary in charge Delhi affairs, Ashok Gehlot, and attended by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Members of Parliament from Delhi Ajay Maken, Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Sandeep Dikshit and Kapil Sibal, Rajya Sabha member J.P. Aggarwal, Ministers A.K. Walia, Yoganand Shastri and Raj Kumar Chauhan and MLA Tajdar Babbar.

During the meeting the Congress leaders also declared that the MCD elections would be completed as per the new Municipal Corporation of Delhi Amendment Bill 2007 passed by the Delhi Assembly on January 8. Under the new Act, the minimum number of seats in the MCD has been increased to 272 and the maximum limit has been set at 300.

The Coordination Committee also urged Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, who was a special invitee at the meeting, to regularise all 1,500 unauthorised colonies in Delhi without levying any charges. It also sought ownership rights for the residents of 44 resettlement colonies. As for colonies that have come up on Government land, it was suggested that they be regularised after charging of fee as per the land acquisition rates.

Suggesting changes to the draft Master Plan for Delhi-2021, which was recently debated at length in the Special Session of the Delhi Assembly, the Congress leaders also demanded that the conversion charges proposed therein be reduced by 70 per cent across the board and that they be levied only once and the provision of payment of annual charges be done away with.

The meeting was informed that the Delhi Government would be forwarding its views on the Master Plan to the Union Ministry soon. The Congress leaders also demanded that their suggestions be taken seriously and incorporated as amendments and that there should be no haste in finalising the Master Plan by this month-end.

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