The Hindu : New Delhi News : Councillors to get laptops

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Councillors to get laptops

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 2. After a wait of about a year and a half, Councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are now likely to get a laptop within two to three months, making the elected representatives of the civic body in tune with modern times. All this is estimated to cost the MCD more than Rs. 1 crore.

Incidentally, the civic body has not been able to give salary to a large number of employees, particularly teachers and safai karamcharis, for the past few months. Also several of its crucial projects have been running behind schedule due to lack of funds.

The Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, today announced that a tender in this regard would be issued soon and the laptops would be delivered to the municipal Councillors.

In his annual budget presentation in March 2003, the then Standing Committee Chairman, Ram Babu Sharma, had announced that laptops would be provided to the elected representatives and to reporters covering the MCD as well. But it is only now that the decision is being implemented.

Stating that a provision of laptops to Councillors has been made in the annual budget, he said as of now this would be provided only to the elected representatives. Although, the Councillors welcomed the announcement, senior officials raised serious queries over the usefulness of the laptops being provided by the MCD to them, particularly at a time when the municipality was facing a financial crisis.

Figures related to the educational qualification of the Councillors made available by the Municipal Secretary revealed that more than 42 per cent of these elected representatives were under graduates. "Nearly seven per cent of them are not even metric," the official said.

Although the Councillors would be given training before being handed over the laptops, officials pointed out that there has been a very poor response to the computer training programme held for them last year.

The office of the Municipal Secretary had to send several reminders to the Councillors for joining the training programme. But not even one-fourth of them opted for the training, officials said. However, the decision to give laptops to the Councillors, Mr. Mehta said was part of the ongoing computerisation and modernisation drive of the MCD.

"This would keep them updated with the latest developments and ensure that they reap the benefits of the information technology revolution," he said. He clarified that the laptop facility would be withdrawn to the councillors after they relinquish their office.

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