Backs mayor in her fight against CEO

JAIPUR: Congress MP Mahesh Joshi finally came out in support of the city mayor Jyoti Khandelwal in her tussle with the Jaipur Municipal Corporation CEO Rajesh Yadav, on Sunday. He also disagreed with UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal’s statement that the Corporation appeared to be “a hellhole” because of the overstretched spat between the mayor and the CEO.
The Jaipur MP said the CEO was wrong in lodging a complaint with the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) against the mayor.
“The mayor is not at fault in the electricity bills payment matter,” Joshi said. He reasoned that the bills paid from the Corporation funds were cleared by the Corporation officials. “Moreover, the matter had been discussed in the general body meeting and was under consideration by the state government. Where was the need to go to the ACB,” Joshi asked at a press conference here. “I was in Gujarat that day but told the CEO over the phone that what he did was not right,” he added.
The Jaipur MP maintained he was opposed to public representatives taking on government officials in public but emphasised the mayor was justified in demanding their legal rights in the Corporations. In fact, Joshi put the onus of resolving all disputes between Jaipur’s elected representatives and the government officials on UDH minister Dhariwal.
“I hope the UDH minister will soon convene a meeting of the people’s representatives and the officials to settle the controversies,” Joshi said.
The Congress leader, who first hit out at party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Ashq Ali Tak, asserted that despite all the infightings among the mayor, councillors and the officials, the Corporation was not a “Narak” (hell).