Delhi Mayor shares stage with MCD commissioner days after seeking his sacking

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu) :  Just two days after Delhi Mayor Mahesh Khichi sought the sacking of MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar, the two top civic functionaries were seen sharing a stage on Monday as the Corporation rewarded its employees on the 135th birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Dr B.R. Ambedkar. The presence of both the Mayor and the Commissioner on the stage, standing next to each other, appeared to be a sign of subsiding turbulence in the civic agency, days after Khichi accused the Commissioner of allegedly taking unilateral decisions on imposition of levies on citizens. Apart from talking about Ambedkar’s ideals, the Mayor praised the organisation of the programme on Monday and welcomed the presence of the Municipal Commissioner and his subordinate officials.

“We honoured our sanitation workers, teachers and meritorious students during the successful event at the packed auditorium,” Khichi told mediapersons, amid signs of a thaw in his strained relationship with the Commissioner. The event was among the last few public appearances of the outgoing Mayor before the next Mayoral election scheduled for April 25. On April 11, Mayor Mahesh Khichi, an AAP councillor, wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to remove the Commissioner for, what he called, “arbitrary decisions”, a move that was described as ‘anarchist’ and ‘laughable’ by the Opposition BJP. Khichi sought the removal of the MCD chief over the latter’s decision to impose a garbage user fee on property tax payers and hike commercial licence fee.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “The AAP government in Delhi used to clash with the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Secretary. Now that they are in power in the Municipal Corporation, they are in conflict with the Municipal Commissioner. First, they stalled development work in Delhi, and for the past two years, they have paralysed the Municipal Corporation.” While writing to HM Shah, Khichi said the Commissioner had ignored the letters he had written to the latter to protest the imposition of the new levies. “As it is, Delhi residents are overburdened with taxes and now they are imposing additional levies,” he said.