The Delhi Government has finally cleared a list of 51 unauthorised colonies for regularisation. After approving the names of these colonies the Government forwarded the list to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for approval.

Before notification, the Standing Committee of MCD will have to approve the proposal. The Delhi Government had promised to regularise 1,639 unauthorised colonies within a year of coming to power in 2008. The Government had taken three years to get NOC from all departments for 1,000 colonies across the city.

Admitting that the regularisation process has been tardy and time-consuming, Urban Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said that the layout plan of 120 colonies was received from the civic body. “Of these the boundary fixation committee of Delhi Government cleared 51 colonies and has sent the list to MCD for final approval of layout plan and boundaries. Before notification, the civic body will have to get the proposal approved by the standing committee,” Chauhan said, adding the ball was in now MCD’s court.

“If the civic body delays the process, they would be held responsible which may prove costly to the BJP in the MCD elections,” he said. As per notification for regularisation of unauthorised colonies, layout plans need to be approved by MCD’s standing committee for final notification.

Nearly four years after he started the process of democratisation in the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) by holding organisational elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has taken the next step forward by expanding the role and functions of these wings. In the process, he has also re-distributed the ‘portfolios’ of his secretaries, the biggest gainer of which is Mandsaur MP Meenakshi Natarajan, who has been entrusted with the charge of IYC and NSUI elections.

Jitendra Singh, who was AICC secretary in charge of IYC, has been given charge of training for both organisations. AICC secretary Deepak Babaria, a Congress leader from Gujarat who was recently attached with Rahul, has been assigned to look after Pehchaan, a web-based networking portal for IYC and NSUI members on which they can create their profiles and update the status of their works for their senior leaders in the states and in New Delhi to appraise them and reward them in future as per their performance. Shanimol Usman, who was also attached with Rahul, has been entrusted to get the two wings to work for “weaker sections”.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be restructured after all. Two days after chief minister Sheila Dikshit met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and reiterated the need to restructure the municipal body before the 2012 municipal polls, the party brass has indicated it’s not averse to a split. It will, in fact, allow the state government to take a call. The proposal for splitting the corporation will now go back to the Delhi cabinet for a review and some changes.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president JP Aggarwal , a large number of Congress councillors and the state party’s executive committee members don’t want the civic body to be split. Most councillors are worried about the proposal to increase the number of wards from 272 to 408 as this would reduce their political clout and increase competition during polls.

The controversy has now raged for over a month with both Dikshit and Aggarwal unrelenting on their stand. Dikshit seems to have won this round. While the All India Congress Committee leadership refrained from making any comment, sources said that by Monday the final plan of action will be worked out by the state government which is in a rush to execute the split before the municipal polls early next year.

While the chief minister’s plan to split the MCD into five, as proposed by the political committee chaired by revenue minister AK Walia, is likely to remain unchanged, the cabinet may do a rethink on the proposal to increase the number of wards. If the state government leaves the number of wards untouched, it is likely to pacify most councillors who are only keen to guard their territory. The CM’s resolve to introduce 50 per cent reservation for women in MCD also seems to have found favour with the high command and this will now be considered by the cabinet . According to sources the matter will be brought before the cabinet early next week for approval. Restructuring of the corporation will require a special session of the assembly so that the election process can be notified on time by the state election commission .

The restructuring of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) kept politicians of both parties in the city on their toes on Thursday.

While Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit met Congress party president Sonia Gandhi in the morning to reiterate the need to break up the MCD into smaller parts, Delhi mayor Rajni Abbi too made a trip to the Centre. She met home minister P Chidambaram to apprise him of the dissent amongst councillors on the move to restructure the municipal body.

After her meeting with Gandhi, Dikshit seemed optimistic that a final decision may come through in “two to three days”. But the All India Congress Committee brass is more cautious and preferred to say that a “decision is expected shortly”. However, Dikshit indicated that the MCD issue is nearing resolution and a decision is expected over the next two to three days.

Sheila Dikshit (born 31 March 1938) is a Delhi(India) Chief minister. She is from the Indian National Congress. Dikshit was sworn in as the Chief Minister for a third consecutive term of the Government of Delhi state in January 2009 after pulling a victory in November 2008 state elections. She is the second woman Chief Minister of Delhi and represents the New Delhi Constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi.

Dikshit holds a Master of Arts degree. She received her education in New Delhi, and later Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is also the recipient of Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa, from the University of Delhi. She was married into the family of Shri Umashankar Dikshit, a noted independence activist and a former Governor and Union Cabinet Minister (in U.P. Vill. Ugu Distt. Unnao). Her late husband Vinod Dikshit was a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). She has two children, son Sandeep Dikshit, who is a member of parliament from East Delhi for Congress and daughter Latika Syed.

During the period between 1984 and 1989, she represented Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh. As a member of Parliament, she served on the Estimates Committee of Lok Sabha. Dikshit also chaired the Implementation Committee for Commemoration of Forty Years of India’s Independence and Jawaharlal Nehru centenary. She represented India at United Nations Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984–1989). As President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, she led her party to victory in the Assembly elections in 1998.

She has also served as a Union Minister during 1986-1989, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and later as a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. She was shortlisted for the 2008 World Mayor award.As Chief Minister of Delhi, Dikshit was awarded the Best Chief Minister of India, by Journalist Association of India on 12 July 2008. In 2009, she was awarded Politician of the Year by NDTV.

She represented India on the U.N. Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984–89). In Uttar Pradesh, she and her 82 colleagues were jailed in August 1990 for 23 days by the state government when she led a movement against the atrocities being committed on women. Electrified by this, hundreds of thousands of citizens all over UP joined the movement and courted arrest. Earlier, in the early 1970s, she was chairperson of the Young Women’s Association and was instrumental in the setting up two of most successful hostels for working women in Delhi.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said 50 percent seats will be reserved for women under the new set up proposed for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Addressing a symposium on the Role of Women in the forthcoming MCD elections, Dikshit said: ‘Fifty percent seats will be reserved under the new set up of MCD for women. This will provide an excellent opportunity for women to be part of decision-making process in MCD, which is a important local body in the capital city.’

The Delhi cabinet recently proposed to split the MCD into five smaller bodies ahead of the 2012 municipal polls.

She also exhorted women to get ready to contest elections as the parties will be looking for more and more women candidates.

Congress  held demonstrations across the city demanding immediate roll back of hike in toll tax for commercial vehicles, effected by BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The demonstrations are seen as Congress launching the election campaign for the municipal polls in the city which are scheduled to take place in April next year.

Slamming the BJP for hiking the toll tax, DPCC president J P Aggarwal said the demonstrations were held in 140 places across the city and party MLAs, MPs and several Delhi Ministers participated in them.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, fuelling speculation over the possible exit of Public Works Department Minister Rajkumar Chauhan.

Last week, Delhi Lokayukta Justice M M Sarin had sent a recommendation to President Pratibha Patil that Chauhan be removed from his post for interfering in a tax raid at a South Delhi resort last year.

Chauhan called on Dikshit at her residence in the evening and stayed for over an hour. The Chief Minister’s Office has not confirmed whether he has been asked to resign.

Sources said Dikshit was called by Gandhi to discuss the issue, especially in the view of the upcoming Assembly elections.

The Delhi Lokayukta had last week recommended the sacking of Chauhan from the Delhi Cabinet for trying to protect the resort in a tax evasion case, holding him guilty of “misconduct” of a “grave nature”.

In the order, Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin recommended to the President that she “withdraw her pleasure” for the Minister to continue in office, as he had “misused” his official position.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday redistributed all key portfolios among her Cabinet colleagues, replacing one minister with her old-time loyalist, a move sources close to her said would keep her detractors on a tight leash.

Social Welfare and Labour Minister Mangat Ram Singhal was shown the door and three-time legislator from Rajinder Nagar and former journalist Ramakant Goswami made his debut as a minister, with Industries, Labour and Elections portfolio.

Goswami was Dikshit’s parliamentary secretary in 2001, Congress’s chief whip in the Delhi assembly in 2003 and the vice-chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, which Dikshit heads.

All ministers except Transport and Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely were cut to size as they lost what government officials and politicians said were portfolios close to their heart.

Just over two years into her third term as the Chief Minister, Dikshit described the revamp as an exercise to bring fresh thoughts into the Cabinet and said the reshuffle has been made with “blessings” from the party high-command.

A Rajasthan minister has found himself in a soup over his unsavoury remarks about President Pratibha Patil he made at a meeting of Congress workers. Minister of state for panchayati raj and waqf Amin Khan had stated that Patil was rewarded with the country’s top post because she
“used to cook and wash utensils” for former prime minister Indira Gandhi after she lost the elections in 1977.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot has now been summoned to New Delhi by the Congress brass to discuss Khan’s remark. Gehlot, who held a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, is expected to meet the president and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to clarify Khan’s remark.

The CM  had earlier expressed his anguish over the derogatory remark. He also reportedly called Patil and apologised.

Late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had sacked a minister in his cabinet, KK Tiwari, who made disparaging remarks against a former president, Gyani Zail Singh, in 1988.

The BJP said the remark was unfortunate and called for Khan’s resignation.