Ajay Maken takes oath as New Delhi Municipal Council member

NEW DELHI: Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken today took oath as a member of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), just a few months before his tenure as a Lok Sabha MP comes to an end.

Maken is Member of Parliament from New Delhi and according to the NDMC Act, the MP from the constituency and MLAs from New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment Assembly constituencies automatically become members of the council.

His membership in the civic agency was notified in 2011 by the Home Ministry and since then NDMC has been sending reminders to him to take oath, an NDMC official said.

The agency received a letter from the MP's office earlier this week, saying he would like to attend the meeting scheduled for today.

It is speculated that Maken did not become a member earlier due to his differences with former Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit whose tenure as an NDMC member ended after she lost the New Delhi constituency to present CM Arvind Kejriwal in the recent Assembly elections.

The oath-taking ceremony was held in the council meeting today which discussed a range of issues from regularisation of temporary workers to 24/7 water supply in the NDMC areas.

The council approved in principle to regularise the temporary/contractual workers employed by the agency and has asked the personnel department to rework the proposal and submit it in the next meeting, NDMC officials said. The decision was announced by Maken after his oath.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, MLA from New Delhi constituency, and Surinder Singh representing Delhi Cantonment constituency were not present for the meeting as their membership has not yet been notified by the Home Ministry. The regularisation of workers from Temporary Mustor Roll (TMR) to Regular Mustor Roll (RMR) will be according to a policy brought out in 2011 and will ensure that they get work on a regular yearly basis.

The council also took up a proposal to rationalise the water and electricity tariff in the areas under the jurisdiction of NDMC but it could not be discussed further as it was placed in the table agenda instead of the regular agenda.

The proposal comes days after AAP slashed power tariff by 5 per cent and promised free water up to 20 kilolitres. The proposal will be taken up in the next council meeting when it will be placed in the regular agenda, officials said.

However, the council has given an approval to proposal of for 24/7 water supply in the NDMC areas. The decision will come into effect after two years when the process in this regards will be completed, officials said.