The Hindu : New Delhi News : Unruly scenes at MCD meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Unruly scenes at MCD meet

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 29. Uproarious scenes were witnessed at the Standing Committee meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi today. While the only opposition Councillor, Vijender Kumar Gupta, threw the mike and missiles at the treasury benches in a fit of rage, the Standing Committee Chairman, Mukesh Goel, admitted that the ruling party was indulging in corrupt practices and dared his opponents to do whatever they can to stop it.

"Yes, we accept bribe, do whatever you can?" Mr. Goel said after Mr. Gupta alleged that the ruling party Councillors had "violated the norms and set procedures" in purchase of 134 laptops, which would be distributed to the elected Councillors on January 3.

Mr. Gupta started throwing missiles and tore up the official papers kept in the well after Mr. Goel -- following a verbal dual -- charged that Mr. Gupta was making such wild allegations only because he did not get a share of the booty.

It all began just before the short-notice inquiry on disaster management was taken up for discussion. Raising the issue, Mr. Gupta said the purchase of laptops for Councillors should not be a "priority" for MCD at a time when the civic body was unable to distribute sweaters to students and salaries to its employees on time.

"As such there was no need to purchase such items worth Rs. 68 lakhs. What was the need to get the item approved in anticipation when several issues of urgent nature and public interest like purchase of medicines take months to get cleared and are treated as a matter of routine?" Mr. Gupta said. Charging that the members of the ruling party had vested interest in purchase of such a large number of laptops at short notice, he demanded an inquiry into the deal.

Denying the allegations, Mr. Goel said this was a promise made some 18 months ago. "There has been no violation in purchase of laptops. Any one can conduct the inquiry and see the files. We want our Councillors to get the laptops at the earliest as this would speedup development activities in the MCD," he said.

The Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, said the laptops had been purchased through a proper tendering process. "It is an IBM Thinkpad costing Rs. 50,800," he said. Commenting on the incident, Mr. Goel, at a press conference later said: "It is all part of democracy." However, the senior Congress Councillor from Malviya Nagar, Jitender Kochar, condemned the behaviour of Mr. Gupta. "Such behaviour -- that too from a two-time Councillor -- has to be condemned in the strongest possible words. It should be ensured that such incidents are not repeated in the future," he said.

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