NDMC committee reconstituted, chair yet to be named

New Delhi
The ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Tuesday reconstituted the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) committee, naming seven of its 13 members, as the five-year term of the council overseeing Lutyens Delhi was to expire on September 19.
According to a gazette notification issued on September 17, New Delhi MLA Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj and Delhi Cantt MLA Virender Singh Kadiyan were named members. Others are the additional secretary (UT) from MHA Ashutosh Agnihotri, the additional secretary from the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) Surendra Kumar Bagde, MoHUA joint secretary Ravi Kumar Arora and Delhi government secretary Niharika Rai.
Four non-official nominated members have not been announced yet. With about half the committee members, including the chairman, still not appointed, decision-making is likely to be impacted. “The four non-official members nominated and serving in NDMC include BJP senior leader and NDMC vice chairman Satish Upadhyay, BJP leader Kuljeet Chahal, Vishakha Sailani, and Girish Sachdeva. Although the first meeting took place in September 2019, the four appointed non-official members started operating on August 26, 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In such a situation, the central government may also decide to extend their tenures,” an NDMC official said.
According to the NDMC Act, 1994, the 13 NDMC members include a chairperson who is a joint secretary-level bureaucrat, legislators from New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment, five central government officers and the New Delhi member of Parliament (MP).
The other four members are to be nominated by the central government to represent professions of lawyers, doctors, chartered accountants, engineers, business and financial consultants, intellectuals, traders, labourers, and social workers, including social scientists, artists or mediapersons, according to the Act.
The council is to be headed by a senior IAS officer, but there has been no chair since August 18 when the tenure of Naresh Kumar, former chief secretary with additional charge as NDMC chair, ended. MCD commissioner Ashwini Kumar has been appointed as a link officer.
The NDMC Act mandates that of the 13 members, there shall be at least three women and two belonging to scheduled castes, of whom one will be among the four members nominated by the Centre. According to the NDMC Act (1994), the tenure of the NDMC committee has been defined in Article 5, which states that the tenure will be for five years from the formation of the council or its first meeting.