Meet Khushi Ram Chunar, the newly elected Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation. Unlike his North Delhi counterpart, he lives in a 25 square yard accommodation in a JJ cluster in South Delhi for want of an official residence for the Mayor.
However, moved by the situation and seeking equal status for its Mayor, South Delhi Municipal Corporation has asked the SDMC Commissioner to identify and allot a proper accommodation within 15 days so that the Mayor could carry out his official duty smoothly. Khushi Ram is the third Mayor of SDMC after it was formed in May 2012. Khushi Ram’s predecessors — Savita Gupta and Sarita Chaudhary — too lived in their private accommodations during their tenure. However, SDMC has taken up the issue saying the ‘pride of the Mayor’s post’ is at stake.
The crisis emerged after trifurcation of the MCD when the sprawling bungalow at 1, lancer Road in the city, the official residence of the Delhi’s Mayor since ages, was allotted to the Mayor of the North Delhi Corporation. However, Mayors of the two other civic bodies were left in the lurch despite the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act providing for official residences to the elected Mayor(s). It is noteworthy that the current Mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Meenakshi, has been living in her private flat at Shiv Vihar in Karawal Nagar of North East Delhi.
The SDMC Mayor, who comes from a humble background and Dalit community, rued that he has been facing innumerable difficulties in functioning from his small flat located on the third floor of a JJ cluster in Madangir. There is no place to make his visitors sit and listen to their grievances. It is for this reason that his party colleagues and councilors have to meet him in the office. “I have been living at my Madangir residence for the last 30 years. But since there is a little space, I cannot execute my official works from here. It is difficult to make my visitors sit in the house,” the Mayor told The Pioneer.
Officials of the South and East Delhi Corporations said they have requested DDA for a suitable, conveniently located plot for constructing the Mayor’s bungalow but there has been no communication from DDA. However, faced with difficulties, SDMC has asked its officials to identify an accommodation on the urgent basis.
“SDMC Mayor Khushi Ram belongs to a downtrodden family and lives in a 25-sq yard flat in a JJ cluster. In such a small house it is not possible for him to sit and listen to the grievances of visitors and run a residential office. You are, therefore, required to look into the matter and arrange a suitable accommodation for the Mayor within 15 days as the pride of the Mayor is at stake,” said SDMC Standing Committee Chairman Satish Upadhyay in his letter to SDMC Commissioner Manish Gupta.
Upadhyay lamented that despite the DMC Act providing for a House for the Mayor, the facility has been denied for more than two years. However, sources said the officials are identifying the some of the SDMC properties located in posh localities like Greater Kailash, Defence Colny and Soami Nagar that could be allotted to the Mayor temporarily. Similarly in EDMC, a couple of properties were identified in Seelampur but the previous Mayors Annapurna Mishra and Ram Narayan Dubey refused to move into them citing poor connectivity and logistics.