Govt sets up committee to reorganise MCD
A year ahead of the MCD election, the Delhi Cabinet on Monday constituted a five-member committee to examine reorganisation of the civic body into smaller units. The committee, consisting of three Delhi ministers and two BJP members, has been tasked to arrive at a political consensus on possible trifurcation of the MCD. However, the BJP has alleged that the party was not consulted before constituting the committee.
The committee, headed by Delhi urban development minister A.K. Walia, has education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely and revenue minister Raj Kumar Chouhan along with leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Prof. V. K. Malhotra, and senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi as members. Delhi BJP chief Vijendra Gupta, in a statement, said that none of the two BJP leaders were consulted before being appointed as members of the committee.
A number of committees had earlier been also constituted to look into the reorganisation of the MCD, with the last committee headed by the former chief secretary Omesh Saigal having submitted his report about five years ago. It may also be recalled that just before the last MCD election, Delhi government had raised number of wards in the civic body to 272 in an obvious bid to curb the political significance of the councillors.
The Delhi Cabinet has taken the view that since the BJP too in its election manifesto for 2008 Assembly elections had favoured smaller units of the civic body, so it is worthwhile to explore a political consensus over the issue. The MCD is administered by the ministry of home affairs as per Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, which was enacted by the Parliament. The Delhi Cabinet has asked the committee to suggest it to look into the entire ambit of the functioning of the MCD and recommend a set of feasible suggestions to overcome the hassles coming in the way of proper delivery of services.
Post new comment