# Chandigarh Municipal Corporation

The Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC), also known as Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, is the civic body that governs the city of Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab and Haryana.

## History

The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh, India was formed within the Union Territory of Chandigarh under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act in 1976. The corporation was later extended to the union territory, Chandigarh, by the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994 (Act No.45 of 1994), which came into effect on 24 May 1994. Under a provision of Section 47 of the act, M.P. Tyagi was appointed as the first Commissioner of the Corporation w.e.f. on 19 June 1995. Tyagi continued to exercise mayoral powers until 23 December 1994, when the first meeting of the elected body of the Corporation was held. Tyagi was succeeded as Commissioner by S.K. Gathwal on 8 August 1996.
In the Municipal Corporation, BJP candidate Arun Sood defeated Congress' Mukesh Bassi by 21–15 votes for the post of Mayor, while BJP's Davesh Moudgil and SAD's Hardeep Singh defeated Congress' Darshan Garg and Gurbax Rawat for the posts of Sr. Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively, in the Municipal Corporation's mayoral polls in January 2016.
After the 2016 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election in January 2017, BJP's Asha Kumari Jaswal was elected as the mayor, BJP's Rajesh Kumar Gupta and Anil Dubey were elected as senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor respectively. In January 2019, Mayor elections, BJP candidate Rajesh Kumar Kalia was elected as the Mayor by defeating the independent candidate Satish Kainth by securing 16 votes out of the total 27 votes.
Ravi Kant Sharma served as Mayor of Chandigarh till 2021 upon succeeding Raj Bala Malik.
2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election was held on 24 December 2021. Sarbjit Kaur was elected as the Mayor of the civic body after the elections.

## List of mayors

The mayor is the head of the Municipal Corporation. Of the five-year term of the Municipal Corporation, Office of the Mayor, for the first and fourth years, is reserved for women.
| S. No. | Name | Term | Party |
| 1. | Kamla Sharma | 23 December 1996 – 22 December 1997 | |
| 2. | Gian Chand Gupta | 23 December 1997 – 22 December 1998 | |
| 3. | Kewal Krishan Addiwal | 23 December 1998 – 22 December 1999 | |
| 4. | Shanta Hit Abhilashi | 23 December 1999 – 22 December 2000 | |
| 5. | Raj Kumar Goyal | 23 December 2000 – 21 July 2001 | |
| 6. | Gurcharan Dass (acting) | 22 July 2001 – 17 August 2001 | |
| 7. | Harjinder Kaur | 18 August 2001 – 22 December 2001 | |
| 8. | Lalit Joshi | 1 January 2002 – 31 December 200 | |
| 9. | Subhash Chawla | 1 January 2003 – 31 December 2003 | |
| 10. | Kamlesh | 1 January 2004 – 31 December 2004 | |
| 11. | Anu Chatrath | 1 January 2005 – 31 December 2005 | |
| 12. | Surinder Singh | 1 January 2006 – 31 December 2006 | |
| (7). | Harjinder Kaur | 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2007 | |
| 13. | Pardeep Chhabra | 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2008 | |
| (10). | Kamlesh | 1 January 2009 – 31 December 2009 | |
| (11). | Anu Chatrath | 1 January 2010 – 31 December 2010 | |
| 14. | Ravinder Pal Singh | 1 January 2011 – 31 December 2011 | |
| 15. | Raj Bala Malik | 1 January 2012 – 31 December 2012 | |
| (9). | Subhash Chawla | 1 January 2013 – 31 December 2013 | |
| 16. | Harphool Chander Kalyan | 1 January 2014 – 5 January 2015 | |
| 17. | Poonam Sharma | 6 January 2015 – 7 January 2016 | |
| 18. | Arun Sood | 8 January 2016 – 31 December 2016 | |
| 19. | Asha Kumari Jaswal | 12 January 2017 – 8 January 2018 | |
| 20. | Davesh Moudgil | 9 January 2018 – 18 January 2019 | |
| 21. | Rajesh Kumar Kalia | 19 January 2019 – 9 January 2020 | |
| 22. | Rajbala Malik | 10 January 2020 – 7 January 2021 | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 23. | Ravi Kant Sharma | 8 January 2021 – 7 January 2022 | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 24. | Sarabjit Kaur | 8 January 2022 – 16 January 2023 | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 25. | Anup Gupta | 17 January 2023 – 30 January 2024 | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 26. | Manoj Sonkar | 30 January 2024 – 18 February 2024 | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 27. | Kuldeep Kumar | 20 February 2024 - 30 January 2025 | Aam Aadmi Party |
| 28. | Harpreet Kaur Babla | 30 January 2025 – Incumbent | Bharatiya Janata Party |

## Composition

According to the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh's website, the Corporation is composed of the following members:
| 1 | "Members to be directly elected, representing wards." | 35 |
| 2 | "Members with voting rights to be nominated by the Administrator, from amongst the people who are eminent of distinguished in public affairs or those who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect of municipal administration." | 10 |
| 3 | "The Member of the House of the people representing the constituency which comprises wholly or partly, the Municipal Area, with the right to vote. (Member of Parliament from Chandigarh)" | 1 |

## Administration

The commissioner is the apex of the municipal administrative hierarchy that runs its administration. He is a senior government official (usually an I.A.S officer) and is appointed by the Central government. He is the chief executive officer who is responsible for the passing and implementation of the annual municipal corporation budget, its policies and programmes. All personnel of the municipal corporation work under the commissioner's supervision and control.
The current municipal commissioner of the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh is Amit Kumar.
Chandigarh being a city-state, and a Union Territory does not have a legislative assembly of its own, even though it hosts the legislative assemblies of two states Punjab & Haryana, being a common capital of both states. It has its own Municipal Corporation (MCC), which acts as the local governing authority of the City Beautiful (Chandigarh). The MCC is one of the most powerful local authorities in the Republic of India as it serves both as a regional and local authority.

## Departments

| Public Health Department | Planning & Building Branch |
| Health & Sanitation Department | Horticulture Department |
| Building & Roads Department | Fire and Emergency Services Department |
| Electrical Department | Finance & Accounts Department |
| Legal Department | Pensions & P.F.Department |
| Audit Department | Urban Poverty Alleviation & Livelihood Cell |
| Architecture Department | Estate Department |
| Booking Department | Public Relations Department |
| Enforcement Department | I.T. Department |
| Agenda Department | Taxation Department |
| Paid Parking Department | |

## Composition of MCC House

Contesting the 2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election for the first time, Aam Aadmi Party won 14 seats and became the single largest party in the council of total 35 elected seats. Sitting mayor Ravi Kant Sharma from BJP lost his seat to AAP candidate Damanpreet Singh.
Composition of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation after 2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election.
Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (April 2022) :
| Party | Seats won | Seats +/− |
| Aam Aadmi Party | 14 | 14 |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 12 | 8 |
| Indian National Congress | 8 | 4 |
| Shiromani Akali Dal | 1 | |
Two Congress members defected to BJP after election.
Composition of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (July 2022) :
| Party | Seats |
| Aam Aadmi Party | 14 |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 14 |
| Indian National Congress | 6 |
| Shiromani Akali Dal | 1 |
| Nominated | (vacant) |
| Member of Parliament | 1 |

## Current members
### Elected councillors

Mayor: Harpreet Kaur Babla :
| Senior Deputy Mayor: Jasbir Singh Bunty |||||
| Deputy Mayor: Taruna Mehta |||||
| Ward No | Councillor | Party | Party | Remarks |
| 1 | Jaswinder Kaur | | AAP | |
| 2 | Maheshinder Singh Sidhu | | BJP | |
| 3 | Dalip Sharma | | BJP | |
| 4 | Suman Devi | | AAP | |
| 5 | Darshana | | INC | |
| 6 | Sarabjit Kaur | | BJP | |
| 7 | Manoj Sonkar | | BJP | |
| 8 | Harjeet Singh | | BJP | |
| 9 | Bimala Dubey | | BJP | |
| 10 | Harpreet Kaur Babla | | BJP | Elected as INC candidate, later defected to BJP. |
| 11 | Anup Gupta | | BJP | |
| 12 | Saurabh Joshi | | BJP | |
| 13 | Sachin Galav | | INC | |
| 14 | Kuljeet Sandhu | | BJP | |
| 15 | Ram Chander Yadav | | AAP | |
| 16 | Poonam | | AAP | Elected as AAP candidate, defected to BJP after election. |
| 17 | Damanpreet Singh | | AAP | |
| 18 | Taruna Mehta | | INC | Elected as AAP candidate, defected to INC after the election. |
| 19 | Neha Musawat | | BJP | Elected as AAP candidate, defected to BJP after election. |
| 20 | Gurcharan Jeet Singh Kala | | BJP | Elected as INC candidate, defected to BJP, then to AAP and then again to BJP after the election. |
| 21 | Jasbir Singh | | AAP | |
| 22 | Anju Katyal | | AAP | |
| 23 | Prem Lata | | AAP | |
| 24 | Jasbir Singh Bunty | | INC | |
| 25 | Yogesh Dhingra | | AAP | |
| 26 | Kuldeep Kumar | | AAP | |
| 27 | Gurbax Rawat | | BJP | Elected as INC candidate, defected to BJP on 27 January 2025. |
| 28 | Nirmala Devi | | INC | |
| 29 | Manaur | | AAP | |
| 30 | Hardeep Singh | | AAP | Elected as SAD candidate, defected to AAP after the election. |
| 31 | Lakhbir Singh Billu | | BJP | Elected as AAP candidate, defected to BJP after the election. |
| 32 | Jasmanpreet Singh Babbar | | BJP | |
| 33 | Kanwarjit Rana | | BJP | |
| 34 | Gurpeet Singh | | INC | |
| 35 | Rajinder Sharma | | BJP | |

### Nominated councillors

| Sr. No. | Councillor |
| 1 | Charanjiv Singh |
| 2 | Ajay Dutta |
| 3 | Sachin Kumar Lohtiya |
| 4 | Haji Mohd. Khurshid Ali |
| 5 | Dr Joytsna Wig |
| 6 | Shipra Bansal |
| 7 | Sat Parkash Aggarwal |
| 8 | Kamla Sharma |
| 9 | Maj. Gen. M. S. Kandal |

## Civic utilities

The prime responsibilities of the civic body are to ensure cleanliness and sanitation in the city, illumination of street lights, maintenance of parks, and sewerage disposal.

### Water Supply

The city has both brick and pipe sewers laid in four phases. In September 2020, the civic body announced that it would upgrade and renew the 50-year-old sewerage system. The pilot project for the 24x7 water supply is expected to begin in Chandigarh in May 2021, which was initially to start in September 2020 and end in March 2022. On 8 April 2021, Chandigarh Smart City Ltd (CSCL) opened the bid by the joint venture firm between SB Engineering and Tap Presstressed Pvt Ltd that quoted a value lower than the reserved price of ₹162 crores. The CSCL board is yet to take the final decision.

### Tariffs

In 2021, the BJP ruled corporation had increased the water tariff by 200 times. This created widespread discontent among the residents. AAP promised to provide free water up to 20,000 litres to each family in Chandigarh every month.
In 2021, there was an acute shortage of parking spaces. As the problem aggravated BJP led corporation increased the parking charges in the city. The increase in the waste collection charges, water tariff and property tax rates during the last five years made the voters against the incumbent BJP.
The increased expenditure for the basic amenities and these tariff hikes led to a strong discontent among the voters.

### Cleanliness

In 2016, Chandigarh was the second cleanest city of India. In 2016 BJP came to power in the corporation. In the years that followed, garbage from the city was not disposed of properly. The lack of a proper process or mechanism led to the garbage piled up at the Dadu Majra garbage dump site.
In 2021, Chandigarh fell to 66 positions in the cleanest cities in India. The city had always taken pride in the fact that it was one of the cleanest cities in the country. The fall in cleanliness became an important poll issue. The residents were upset with the downfall in the cleanliness.

### Covid-19

The government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in India damaged BJP's image as the voters felt that they were not given desired help in getting the hospital beds and medical oxygen from their elected representatives. The sitting Councillors were found to be unapproachable when the public needed support. No major relief measure was taken by the local government.