Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | New Delhi
By Sujay Mehdudia
NEW DELHI, NOV 23. Despite repeated attempts by Councillors of the Congress-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi to resist a break-up of the Corporation, the Congress leadership is understood to have given the go-ahead for splitting the Corporation into smaller bodies for better and effective governance. The matter is likely to be discussed by the Delhi Cabinet shortly following which the procedure for the split will be set in motion. According to sources in the Delhi Government, after intricate discussions at various levels including many rounds with the party MLAs and AICC functionaries, the party high command is understood to have given the green signal for break-up of the Corporation. It is learnt that Ms. Dikshit was able to convince the party high command and the Members of Parliament from Delhi that it was in the best interest of the party and the Government that the Corporation was divided into smaller bodies. It was argued that by splitting the MCD, the levels of performance would increase tremendously and benefit the party in the long run. The elections to the Corporation are scheduled for March 2007 and it is hoped that the split would help the Congress overcome the anti-incumbency vote factor at that point in time. "It is wrong to suggest that the decision was deferred on Monday due to inner party pressure. As the Urban Development Minister, A.K. Walia, and the Delhi Chief Secretary, S. Regunathan, are away in Indonesia, the Cabinet meeting could not be held and this issue will be taken up during the next meeting. The party high command has given the clearance for this,'' a senior functionary said. It is learnt that a majority of the MLAs and Members of Parliament are in favour of breaking up the Corporation into smaller bodies for its efficient functioning as things were getting unmanageable and going out of control in view of the every increasing size of the Capital. The Corporation is responsible for upkeep, maintenance, providing civic amenities and ensuring planned growth in 90 per cent of the Capital. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister had convened a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) some time back to form an opinion on the issue. Almost the entire CLP except for the Rohtas Nagar MLA, Ram Babu Sharma had given its verbal nod for split of MCD. At that time, Ms. Dikshit had stated that she would seek to form an opinion among the elected representatives on the issue and since then she has held discussions with a cross section of the partymen. On their part, the Congress Councillors had launched a tirade against the Chief Minister for trying to split the Corporation and had passed a resolution against any such move. However, with Mr. Sharma now occupying the office of the DPCC president, it remains to be seen how he reacts to the proposal in view of his strong opposition in the past and in the light of the go ahead given by the party leadership. The split of Corporation was part of the Congress manifesto that was released during the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the presence of Ms. Dikshit and the senior AICC leader, Ahmed Patel. The Government is of the view that in view of the time that would be required for amendment of the MCD Act in Parliament, the Corporation could be broken up into three smaller bodies without having to seek the nod of Parliament. Under this proposal, a simple executive order would be enough to issue a notification effecting the split that could later be ratified by the Delhi Assembly possibly during the winter session.
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