Dubbing it as a mere "photo opportunity" attempt by its Mayor, Opposition Congress in the BJP-ruled New Delhi Municipal Corporation today said its members will "boycott" the next ordinary meeting of the NDMC which is to be held at the historic Town Hall in the Walled City.
"The Mayor has decided to hold a meeting at the Town Hall but I don't get it...No progress has been made on the Town Hall restoration project but this new fad of his (Mayor) to hold the meet there would cost NDMC at least Rs 25-30 lakh. This is meaningless. We will therefore boycott it," Leader of Opposition in the NDMC Mukesh Goel said.
NDMC recently decided to hold its next ordinary House meeting at the nearly 150-year-old city landmark which once served as the headquarters of the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
MCD, the predecessor to the Delhi Municipality, came into existence in 1958, following the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act of 1957 and its first meeting was held at the Town Hall in 1958.
The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Corporations.
The headquarters which were located till about 2009 at the Town Hall began shifting once Civic Centre came up on Minto Road.
"I have been a councillor since 1997 and after the headquarters shifted to Civic Centre, there have been five mayors but none of them thought of doing so. Why suddenly this Mayor is getting this idea? He just wants to sit on the historic chair on which the first Mayor of the MCD once sat, it's all for publicity," Goel claimed.
"On top of it, members of Opposition were not even consulted before the Mayor took this decision," he added.
Mayor Gupta, however, has said the decision to hold the meeting at the historic building was to stress its heritage value.
"Town Hall is part of our history and we will try to re-emphasise its importance through this meeting so as to attract people's attention to it. We will also invite former councillors to relive old days," Gupta said.
The historic building known for its famed Victorian architecture has been lying in neglect with the NDMC's ambitious plan to restore it lying in doldrums.
"The Hall is in poor condition and rats are roaming the lawn, burrowing holes in the ground, and rats are inside the Hall too. There are old shields, citation and artefacts from MCD era, gathering dust and they should have been kept in a museum. But instead of doing that, the Mayor is busy promoting himself at NDMC's cost," Goel further alleged.
