Ambika Sharma

Solan, July 26

After failing to address the issues concerning the common man for months, the first general house of the Solan Municipal Corporation(MC) of this year would be held on Saturday without a regular Mayor.

BJP's Deputy Mayor Meera Anand is officiating as the Mayor after the incumbent Usha Sharma was disqualified along with a former Mayor Punam Grover for defying party whip during the mid-term mayoral election held in December 2023. The demise of another councillor Kulbhushan Gupta has reduced the number of councillors to 14.

Fourteen of the 17 elected councillors, including the officiating Mayor, and five nominated councillors are expected to attend the general house.

The house proceedings have been turbulent in the last two-and-a-half years term of the Congress' first Mayor Punam Grover and Deputy Mayor Rajeev Kaura. They not only faced opposition from the BJP on all issues but also faced the heat from the Congress councillors who stiffly opposed them. No general house was held after a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor were elected in December 2023.

This has put on hold key issues like discussions on expenditure made by the civic body from October 2023 to June 2024. This would come up for discussion.

With the BJP's Mayor poised to conduct the proceedings, it remains to be seen whether she would manage to get support of both factions of the Congress and whether the BJP councillors would raise issue as vociferously as before.

A slew of issues concerning the common man would be thrashed out in the meeting. Discussion on the burning issue of developing new parking, financial approval and construction of an upcoming parking lot near the corporation, auctioning of various parking lots in the city as well as taking possession of army land near the old bus stand for a proposed parking project would also figure in the agenda.

Unavailability of adequate parking is emerging as a key issue in the city highlighting the corporation's lackadaisical approach in expediting its expansion, has drawn flak from the public.

Bringing a housing colony developed by the Himachal Housing and Urban Development Authority at Basal under the civic body purview and declaring shops and buildings in the old court area unsafe are other significant issues listed in the agenda.

A report on imposing property tax on the buildings on the basis of new rates after undertaking a comprehensive drone-based survey would also be discussed in the house. This could draw the ire of a section of the councillors as certain commercial properties would be subject to higher taxation.