Councillors to declare assets to MCD secy as mayor not elected yet: Officer

MCD councillors will declare their assets to the municipal secretary as the new mayor of Delhi is yet to be elected and the mayoral office is not in existence yet, a senior official said on Tuesday

MCD councillors in Delhi will declare their assets to the municipal secretary as the new mayor of Delhi is yet to be elected and the mayoral office is not in existence yet, a senior official said on Tuesday.

According to the statutory requirement under the DMC Act 1957, a councillor shall, not later than 30 days after taking oath, and before the last day of the same month in each succeeding year, file with the mayor, the declaration of the assets owned by him and his or her family members -- spouse and dependent children.

"Since the mayoral election has not been held till date, the councillors are required to submit these details to the office of the municipal secretary as he is the custodian of the papers of the municipal House," the senior official said.

Once the mayoral election is held and the deliberative wing is in place, the municipal secretary will hand over the papers to the mayor, he added.

On February 6, the municipal House in Delhi had failed to elect a mayor for the third time in a row in a month, following ruckus over the decision to allow aldermen to vote in the mayoral poll, even as the AAP alleged a planned conspiracy by the BJP to stall the process.

An agitated AAP, which is seeking a court-monitored election, had moved the Supreme Court on February 7 over this issue.

The Supreme Court on February 8 had sought responses of the office of the lieutenant governor, pro tem presiding officer of the MCD Satya Sharma, and others on a plea filed by AAP's mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi.

The office of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor on Monday told the Supreme Court that it would postpone the February 16 mayoral election to a date after February 17.