The Hindu : New Delhi News : Majority of MLAs favour MCD trifurcation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Majority of MLAs favour MCD trifurcation

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, AUG. 24. The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) might have failed to push through its decision to split the Municipal Corporation of Delhi at its meeting on Monday, but it has now emerged that a majority of the legislators had favoured division of the corruption-ridden Corporation. The crux of the whole discussion was to put an effective system in place where the political leadership had a better hold over the bureaucracy.

In another development, the All-India Congress Committee general secretary, Ashok Gehlot, today called a meeting of the Congress Councillors to discuss various issues including corruption and indiscipline within the Corporation. It is understood that the Councillors had been asked to work towards a code of conduct and also refrain from activities that could prove detrimental to the interests of the party.

Although the former Chairman of the MCD Standing Committee and Rohtas Nagar MLA, Rambabu Sharma, emerged as the lone voice of protest in the whole show, but a majority of the MLAs went with the proposal for split while at the same time cautioning the party leadership against acting in haste. A number of them were of the view that splitting the Corporation into smaller bodies was no solution and the more important issue of accountability should be addressed first. It was felt that the bureaucracy, which dominated the Corporation as well as the Delhi Government, should be tamed first and a system should be put in place where the elected representatives are given due respect and authority in the day-to-day running of the administration. "If we are going to split the MCD in the name of corruption, then we are just doing what the Bharatiya Janata Party wants us to do. The same babus will rule at the lower and higher level. There is a need to change the mind-set and ensure accountability for both the officers as well as the political leadership," a senior MLA remarked.

There is little doubt that small Corporations would certainly make a more efficient and professional outfit, but for that it would be better to go in for the bigger changes rather than settle for small things. Experts are of the view that Sheila Dikshit Government should throw open the issue for debate and both the Virendra Prakash Committee report and the Deep Chand Bandhu House Committee report should be discussed extensively inside and outside the Delhi Assembly. The CLP has decided to take the discussions further and hold talks with the Members of Parliament from Delhi on the issue. In fact, some of the MLAs were of the view that when other Congress-ruled States can have a Mayor-in-Council system in place, then why not the same thing can be brought in for Delhi. It was pointed out that before the Delhi Municipal Act was amended in early Nineties, the Standing Committee and the House were more powerful than they are at present. The MCD Commissioner now has the authority and powers to overrule everything even if the Standing Committee or the House proposes it.

Many within the Congress are also of the view that the move of the Chief Minister was well intentioned and it should be seen in the right spirit and not as being vindictive towards the Councillors or any group as such. The Congressmen are of the view that the Corporation in its present form is unmanageable, but feel that there was need to empower the elected representatives as they were answerable to the people and not the bureaucrats who just spend a tenure in the Corporation and then are posted elsewhere.

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