more-in North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal on Friday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was sitting on the delimitation file to gain an advantage in the formation of the zone and standing committees. Ms. Agarwal said that although it had been four months since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took charge of the municipal bodies, the government was yet to notify the boundaries of the new zones. “The standing committee and the zone committees cannot be formed because the boundaries of the zones have not been finalised,” she said. Nominations cleared The government had nominated 10 aldermen for the north corporation, all of which were cleared by Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Thursday. However, all of these nominations are in accordance with the old zones. Aldermen are members of the municipal assembly who are not elected by the people, but nominated from various fields such as education, social work or engineering. They are required to share their expertise with the House to make informed decisions while formulating policies. Out of the 10 aldermen in the north corporation, six have been nominated by the government from the Narela zone, while two each have been nominated from the Sadar-Paharganj and the City zones. Since a 2015 judgment of the Delhi High Court empowers aldermen to vote in zone committees, the chances of the AAP—which is in the Opposition in the civic body—to form zone chairpersons from the party increases. Sample this: in Narela, the AAP has four councillors while the BJP has seven. So, with the six aldermen also voting in the zone elections, the AAP will be able to outpower the BJP. It will also be able to manage the entry of three members in the 12-member standing committee. ‘AAP seeking benefits’ “Functioning with the old zones will benefit the AAP and that is why it is stalling the file,” Ms. Agarwal said. The government had notified the files of the south and the east Delhi municipal corporations last week. The two municipalities did not have any major changes in their proposals on the zone boundaries. The north corporation, however, had suggested the formation of a new zone, Keshavpuram, and the combination of the Sadar-Paharganj and the City zones. The Mayor also threatened to gherao the residences of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain if the government failed to notify the zones in the next two days.

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