Neema Bhagat, who was elected as the Mayor of east Delhi on Monday, said that she would be like a smart ‘mother-in-law’ who would guide her team of first-time councillors to work for the people of the city.
Bipin Bihari Singh, meanwhile, was elected as Deputy Mayor on Monday. Both Ms. Bhagat and Mr. Singh’s elections were unopposed.
“If the mother-in-law of a household is smart, the daughters-in-law work well. The focus will be to work for the people,” said Ms. Bhagat after taking oath as Mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC). Incidentally, even as the oath-taking ceremony went on, several sanitation workers protested outside the civic body’s headquarters demanding payment of pending salaries.
Ms. Bhagat also agreed that she had inherited a body where financial crisis was a major impediment. She added that she would focus on revenue generation through innovative measures, besides approaching the Centre to help the civic body sail through the shortage.
“East Delhi has problems peculiar to the area. For example, the area has many unauthorised neighbourhoods. Also, we have lesser resources and a larger area to cater to. However, despite the limited resources, I will make maximum efforts to provide all basic civic amenities to the residents here,” she said.
The BJP had won 181 of the 270 wards in the municipal elections held in April. Elections in two wards, however, were postponed due to the death of candidates there. The BJP has 47 members out of 64 councillors in the EDMC.
Ms. Bhagat, who said that the increased property tax rates for the year 2017-18 would be rolled back, also appealed to residents to keep garbage packets outside their homes between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. each day so that it is collected regularly.
The Mayor also said that recruitment would be done to replace retired sanitation staff. This, besides the EDMC regularising temporary safai karamcharis.
