The Hindu : New Delhi News : MCD division in focus again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 27, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

MCD division in focus again

Sujay Mehdudia

Sheila Dikshit, Ram Babu Sharma differ on reorganisation to check corruption

NEW DELHI: A spate of corruption cases in the recent past involving the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has once again brought into focus the issue of dividing the civic body into smaller units and reorganising it for the benefit of the people. However, a divided Congress party seems unable to decide how to go about fulfilling the promise made to the people in its election manifesto.

The idea behind splitting the Corporation into smaller bodies was to provide efficient and effective civic services to the people of Delhi and put an end to the harassment faced by the common man. The Sheila Dikshit Government had set up the Virendra Prakash Committee on the issue and a House Committee headed by the former Minister, Deep Chand Bandhu, had submitted a report. The party during the December 2003 polls had called for re-organisation of the Corporation by dividing it into smaller parts, something that has been opposed by the DPCC president, Ram Babu Sharma, and his group of Councillors. The issue is likely to figure during the next meeting of the Manifesto Committee headed by the AICC general secretary in charge of Delhi, Ashok Gehlot.

However, the recent cases of corruption involving higher-ups in the civic body and the crackdown by the Central Bureau of Investigation has once again brought the issue of split into focus. The matter had also been raked up during the May 8 meeting of the Manifesto Implementation Committee that was also attended by the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and Mr. Sharma. It is understood that Mr. Sharma had strongly opposed a division of MCD, while Ms. Dikshit was of the view that something needed to be done to put an end to the rot.

The Chief Minister's stand that the Corporation needs a drastic surgery has been vindicated by the recent crackdown against corrupt officials in the Corporation. "What has been exposed in the recent raids on various officials is only the tip of the iceberg. There is an urgent need to bring about accountability in the system and make the official machinery as well as the political leadership accountable for the massive rise in corruption in the civic body,'' a senior Minister stated.

Keeping in mind the present under-performance of the Corporation and with the civic body polls only 20 months away, the Congress will have to take drastic steps if it wants to retain power for a second consecutive term.

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