The Hindu : New Delhi News : L-G's move on streetlights upkeep welcomed

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Friday, Mar 04, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

L-G's move on streetlights upkeep welcomed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 3. The Bharatiya Janata Party has welcomed Delhi Lieutenant-Governor B.L. Joshi's move asking the State Government to get approval of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on the issue of maintenance of streetlights by the power distribution companies and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the same.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Congress-ruled MCD House, Subhash Arya, said the step was a clear direction from the Lieutenant-Governor to the Congress Government in the Capital not to meddle with issues concerning the Corporation. He asked the Delhi Government to first get MCD's clearance on the issue as over 96 per cent of streetlights in the Capital belonged to the civic body.

Alleging that the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, was conspiring to take over MCD's functions one by one, he said that in important civic issues it was not even consulting elected representatives of the Corporation. Streetlights come under the domain of the Corporation and any MoU or change in agreement of its maintenance should be approved by the full House of the Corporation before it was taken up by the Delhi Cabinet for approval or implementation, Mr. Arya asserted.

The BJP leaders further pointed out that in the same arbitrary manner, the Delhi Government had earlier also encroached upon the rights and duties of the civic body that included the transfer the work of maintenance of eight major MCD roads to the PWD.

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