The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila comes under attack at CLP meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 07, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila comes under attack at CLP meet

Sujay Mehdudia

Accused of deviating from Sonia Gandhi's agenda

NEW DELHI: Indicating mounting resentment in the party against her style of functioning, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday came under attack from her party MLAs at the Congress Legislature Party meeting that witnessed heated exchanges, allegations of working at the behest of the farmhouse lobby and accusations of deviating from the agenda set by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Such was the anger among the MLAs that the issue of power and water crisis dominated the meeting, while that of misuse of farmhouses and use of residential property for commercial purpose was thrown into the background. In a thumbs-down to the working of the Sheila Dikshit Government, the Congress MLAs one after the other come down heavily on what they called misrule of the Congress Government and its failure to make the administration responsive to the elected representatives as also to act on the decisions taken during the August 30 CLP on the issue of power related problems.

Heated exchanges were witnessed between the Chief Minister and DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma when Ms. Dikshit objected to the issue of the power crisis being raised during that meeting.

In his opening remarks, Kalkaji MLA Subhash Chopra said a firm view needed to be taken on the issue of use of residential premises for commercial purposes as this would affect lakhs of people. He also touched upon the issue of farmhouses being used for marriages and other commercial functions. Responding to this, Trinagar MLA Anil Bhardwaj said it was surprising that Mr. Chopra had sought to raise new issues but had failed to make a mention of the power related problems, an issue he had raised three months ago. He said Ms. Gandhi had been emphasising on simplicity and austerity, while the CLP was discussing farmhouses and commercial ventures. He said the CLP had lost its credibility by taking up such frivolous issues and he would have been happy if a few words had been said about the lakhs of harassed power consumers.

"We have no authority to take decisions on issues being sought to be raised or discussed as this does not fall under our jurisdiction,'' he remarked.

The Ghonda MLA, Bhisham Sharma, said the bureaucracy had become insensitive to the needs of the people and the elected representatives. So bad was the situation that officials do not bother to call back the MLAs. The Mahipalpur MLA, Vijay Lochav, was critical of the manner in which the CLP had been convened to discuss a matter that affected the elite sections of society. He said Ms. Gandhi avoids visiting farmhouses and such lavish functions and here an attempt was being made through the CLP to serve the interests of a handful of individuals.

Mr. Lochav created a flutter at the meeting when he sought to know as to who had taken money to speak in favour of the farmhouse owners. He said no CLP was convened when rural areas faced problems including that of house tax or demolitions and now CLP had been convened without consulting anybody.

Mr. Ram Babu Sharma clashed with Ms. Dikshit on the issue of power being taken up for discussion. Mr. Sharma said the MLAs were free to raise any issue as no set agenda had been circulated. He said it was meaningless to discuss something that did not fall under the domain of the Delhi Government and felt that an attempt was being made to target the Congress-led Central Government.

"The Cabinet should have discussed the issue before the CLP was convened and worked out all options. It is nothing but an attempt to side step the important issues,'' he remarked.

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