HC notice to mayor, CEO on bypassing statutory panels of Jaipur Municipal Corporation

JAIPUR : The Rajasthan high court has asked the mayor and the CEO of Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) to explain the reasons for forming a special empowered committee to assist in the "prashaasan sehron ka sang abhiyaan" bypassing the statutory committees of the corporation, including the finance and the building committees.Justice Ajay Rastogi issued the show cause notice to the mayor and the CEO of JMC as also chief secretary and principal secretary (LSG department) on a petition filed by Samandar Singh and Neeta Khetan. The petitioners had stated that the state government is acting in a autocratic manner in forming an empowered committee headed by the mayor and having the CEO as member to take decision in the "prashaasan sehron ka sang abhiyaan".By curtailing the powers of statutory committees already existing with JMC, the state government is acting capriciously and arbitrarily taking decisions bypassing the statutory bodies, the petitioners claimed. It has also been highlighted in the petition that the power of finance committee to take decisions has been increased from Rs 50 lakh to Rs two crore but the decision making power has been vested in the mayor only, rendering the committee a namesake body.It has also been brought to the notice of the court that the mayor is bound to call for an emergency meeting of the board of corporation if one third of the corporate members give a call for such meeting but despite repeated request by more than one third members, the mayor as also the CEO have failed to call the emergency meeting of the board of the corporation.Taking a note of the serious allegations leveled in the petition, Justice Rastogi called for a response on the issue from the officials concerned.