Ajay Maken

Ajay Maken, President Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee,has held many Posts & Portfolios in the Indian National Congress, Government of India and Delhi Government. Five Terms MP and MLA; Former Sports Minister, Government of India; Ex- Cabinet Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Government of India; Ex Minister of State For Home Affairs, Government Of India; Ex Minister of State for Urban Development, Government of India; Ex-Speaker of Delhi Assembly & Cabinet Minister for Power, Tourism and Transport Government of Delhi.^[1] He has been bought back to state politics by the leadership of the INC, in order to rejuvenate the Indian National Congress in Delhi. His astute acumen to Strategize, his rich experience at the grass root level combined with vast administrative experience with a clean image were felt to be a strength/need of the hour.

Political career

Ajay Maken was elected the President of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) in 1985, having the rare honour of being the only B.Sc Chemistry(Hons)- Final Year student to serve this post.^[2] His victory as President, DUSU was largely due to the massive sympathy wave generated by the assassination of his uncle Lalit Maken. Lalit Maken, a member of parliament from South Delhi, was a young, dynamic and popular leader with a lot of promise.

His grandfather, Shri. O.P. Maken, was a freedom fighter and his uncle Lalit Maken was also a popular trade union leader. Ajay Maken was subsequently elected as the President of Delhi Transport Corporation Trade Union.

Positions held

• 8th March 2015 Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee Chief
• 16 June 2013 Congress general secretary
• 29 October 2012 Union Cabinet Minister for Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
• 19 January 2011 Union Minister of State, (Independent Charge) Youth Affairs and Sports
• 29 May 2009 Union Minister of State, Home Affairs
• 20 May 2009 Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term)
• 1 March 2007 In charge, Orissa and Jharkhand
• 1 February 2007 Permanent Invitee and Member, All India Congress Committee (AICC)
• 1 January 2006 Union Minister of State, Urban Development
• 1 July 2004 Secretary, All India Congress Committee (AICC)
• 1 June 2004 Member, Panel of Chairmen, Lok Sabha
• 1 May 2004 Member, House Committee
• 1 April 2004 Member, Committee on Information Technology
• 1 March 2004 Member, Rules Committee
• 1 February 2004 Member, General Purposes Committee
• 1 January 2004 Elected to 14th Lok Sabha
• 1 January 2003 Speaker, Delhi Legislative Assembly
• 1 January 2001 Cabinet Minister, Transport, Power and Tourism, Govt. of Delhi
• 1 January 1999 Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister, Govt. of Delhi
• 1 January 1997 general secretary, Indian Youth Congress
• 1 February 1993 general secretary, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee
• 1 January 1993 Member, Delhi Legislative Assembly (three terms)

Delhi constituency

Mr. Ajay Maken has been elected a Member of Legislative Assembly^[3] from the Delhi constituency, for three consecutive terms.

1993. Won by a margin of 4,000 votes (more than 50% of total votes polled). One of the 14 winning candidates (of the 70 fielded) by the Congress(I).

1998. Won by a margin of 20,000 votes (70% of the total votes polled.) The Congress(I) took charge of the Delhi Legislature. Mr. Maken received his first appointment in the Delhi administration.

2003. Won by a margin of 24,000 votes. Appointed the Speaker of Legislative Assembly of Delhi, at age 39. (India's youngest Speaker in a State Assembly).

Delhi State Assembly

1999. He became the Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister. Smt. Sheila Dikshit, chief minister appoint him as her principal troubleshooter and consul.

2001. Appointed Transport, Power and Tourism Minister. He implemented the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) based Public Transport System in Delhi. He is credited with the privatisation of the electricity distribution in Delhi.

In 2004 he was appointed the Speaker of Legislative Assembly of Delhi, at age 39. (India's youngest Speaker in a State Assembly).

Lok Sabha

2004. Mr. Maken represents the Congress(I) in the elections for the New Delhi constituency. Becomes a member of parliament^[4] after defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, a sitting Cabinet Minister Jagmohan from the prestigious New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Long a BJP stronghold, the constituency had elected BJP stalwarts, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani.

2006–2009. Held the independent portfolios as the Minister of State and the Minister of Urban Development-the youngest minister in the Congress(I), to be sworn in the Council of Ministers in Indian Government. Played a key role in finalising the Master Plan for New Delhi.

2007. Appointed a permanent invitee to the Working Committee of All India Congress Committee. He was entrusted with the responsibility of the states, Orissa and Jharkhand.

In the General Elections for the 15th Lok Sabha (Parliament), Ajay Maken contested and secured 455,867 votes. Winning by a record margin of 187,809 votes from the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency.

2009. Appointed the Minister of State for Home Affairs. Entrusted with countering left wing extremism, raising of additional police battalions, and establishment of a national human rights division.

2011. Appointed the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs^[5] after the debacle Commonwealth Games, Replacing Mr. M. S. Gill.

2012 Appointed Union Cabinet Minister for Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation.The youngest Cabinet Minister in the present Government. replacing Ms. Kumari Selja in a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

2014 Ajay Maken has been defeated by BJP candidate Meenakshi Lekhi

Master Plan Delhi

As the Union Urban Development Minister, he played a vital role in regularising colonies, giving Delhi a new Master Plan and containing the sealing and demolition action.

Relief to Delhites

• Permission granted for additional floor for all houses in Delhi (ground +3) floors.
• Existing 100% ground coverage on all plots up to 175 sqm. now stands regularised .
• Existing 1 mt. projections in pre-1962 colonies and all authorised colonies, villages, special area etc. have been regularised.
• All rural and urban villages up to 15 m in height exempted from demolition.
• Shops up to 200 sqft. for specified needs like Kirana, Stationery etc. allowed to be opened anywhere.
• Approached Delhi High Court against wastage of Public Money by Kejriwal Government on self-promotional Ads http://www.firstpost.com/india/delhi-hc-says-aap-govt-ads-prima-facie-in-violation-of-sc-judgment-2371454.html

CNG Man

He was faced with the daunting task of implementing the Honble Supreme Courts orders to convert Delhi Public Transport to CNG. As Transport Minister he supported and implemented CNG (compressed natural gas) based Public Transport System in Delhi that earned world-wide accolades for being an environment friendly public transport system. This led to improvement in ambient air quality of Delhi, which now has more than 100,000 vehicles running on CNG fuel—the highest in any city in the world.

Power Reforms

As the Power Minister, Maken is credited with bringing in power reforms, policy which has had long-term impact on the adequate availability and supply of electricity in power-hungry Delhi.

Sports Bill 2011/RTI in Sports

The Sports bill has been introduced by the Sports Minister with the aim to bring in overall transparency and Administrative reforms in sports. Few aspects of the bill which deal with the Tenure, age and other aspects of related for National Sports bodies have eclipsed the other very significant aspects of the bill.

The bill covers important aspects which would overall improve and encourage the sportspersons and make the sports bodies more accountable and transparent, such as to have penal provisions for unethical practises in sports which cover sexual harassment, doping, age fraud.

Measures like asking the federations to mandatorily place various reports, including their audited accounts, in public domain through their web-sites are designed to ensure that accountability.

The bill has picked up accepted norms being followed by other countries, national international federations. The US introduced the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act in 1978, France has the Associations Law of 1 July 1901, even Sri Lanka has Sri Lanka Sports Law of 1973 (amended in 1993, 1998 and 2005).

But there is an even bigger issue which has been overlooked in the whole debate.It would be interesting to see if the federations and sports bodies come under the RTI ACT.^[6] Now, this draft Bill was actually an enabling provision which would have made National Sports Federations more autonomous without any interference by the government in their functioning.^[7]

After UPA's defeat

In 2014, Maken lost Lok Sabha Election from New Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency and stood at third place.^[8] His party lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He served as the Congress general secretary until 2015, when he resigned after party's failure to win any seat in the Delhi Legislative Assembly election, 2015.^[9]

Personal life

Ajay Maken is married and has three children. He received his education in St. Xavier's School, Delhi.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ajay Maken.

• Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
• Ajay Maken on Twitter