Standing committee chief writes to PC
A day after the Delhi government constituted a five-member committee to look into the issue of trifurcation of the MCD, the chairman of the municipal corporation’s standing committee, Yogender Chandolia, has written to the union home minister P. Chidambaram urging him not to accept the state government’s proposal in this regard.
The MCD has also criticised delegation of street-lighting maintenance task, which was with the civic body, to private power distribution companies (discoms) as unconstitutional.
Mr Chandolia said that Delhi was an alive city and not an entity that could be simply divided into parts just to serve the political purposes of Congress. “If the city is divided, then many of its areas would not be self-dependant either financially or administratively,” said Mr Chandolia. He also questioned whether the city government would go on to set the boundaries for the newly created entities to the extent that it would lead to jurisdictional issues even when it came to catching stray animals or rectifying problems in a drain that runs across the city.
“Will it also go on to ask people to carry out their tehbazari (street vending) activities in only one particular area, or even ask the students not to seek admission in municipal school outside the territory of the zone in which they are staying?” asked Mr Chandolia.
On the other hand, chairman of works committee, Jagdish Mamgain, said that the Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration Act 1957 mandates that a function like maintenance of street-lighting is part of the local body’s responsibility and hence transferring this function to the discoms was against the provisions of the Act.
Mr Mamgain further questioned the move when the work carried out by the discoms at a high rate was not found satisfactory. He added that only the MCD had the sole power of decided who should be given the task of maintaining street lighting. Mr Mamgain said that the move would only help the discoms monetarily.
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