Key file goes missing, Jain orders probe
Urban development minister Satyendar Jain has ordered a probe in connection with a missing file containing records of the appointment of alderman in the three municipal corporations.
Sources said the matter came to light after the minister initiated the process to appoint 10 alderman in each of the three municipal corporations and sought the file to study the procedure applied in the past.
“When the minister sought the file, he was informed it was missing. It was an important file and mala fide cannot be ruled out. The minister ordered the UD secretary to immediately file an FIR, fix responsibility and initiate vigilance proceedings against errant officials of the urban development department,” a source said.
The minister is learnt to have ordered the secretary to reconstitute the file.
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council who is not elected by popular vote.
Under the DMC Act, the L-G can appoint 10 eminent persons as aldermen to each of the three MCDs on the Delhi government’s recommendation.
Aldermen do not have voting rights but are nominated from among social workers or experts in different fields and can raise issues of public interest in the House.
In the recent municipal elections, the BJP came back to power in the three corporations for the third time in a row. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party emerged a distant second.
Appointment of alderman, in a way, will increase the number of AAP sympathisers who could raise issues of public importance in the House.