Mayor nod must to meet minister

In a direct confrontation with the AAP government, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday ordered all its employees not to attend any meeting or report to AAP MLAs and city ministers, including chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, without prior permission of the mayor.

NDMC mayor Sanjiv Nayyar issued the order after all the councillors from treasury and Opposition benches unanimously demanded lodging of an FIR against city minister Sandeep Kumar for allegedly misbehaving with a municipal officer in the Rohini zone.

BJP councillor and deputy chairman of the NDMC standing committee Rajesh Bhatia told a meeting of the civic body’s House that Delhi social welfare minister Sandeep Kumar had recently called an executive engineer for a discussion and took him for an inspection. “During the inspection, Sandeep Kumar abused and misbehaved with the civic official. A report by the Rohini zone deputy commissioner to the municipal body confirmed the incident and recommended lodging of an FIR against the minister,” said Mr Bhatia. Mr Bhatia’s request for lodging of an FIR against Mr Kumar was supported by the Opposition Congress. Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel said directions should be given to the NDMC officials that self-respect and dignity of the corporation’s employees and officers should be maintained and the House should be resolved to protect it.”

The mayor, Dr Nayyar, ordered NDMC commissioner P.K. Gupta to issue an order in this regard and prohibit all officials from sharing any kind of platform with the Aam Aadmi Party government functionaries without permission from his office. “The commissioner should issue an order directing the NDMC officials and prohibiting them from attending or responding to the Delhi government without prior permission. Action will be taken against the officials found violating this order,” said Dr Nayyar.