NEW DELHI: The Delhi Assembly's Petitions Committee headed by senior Congress MLA S.C. Vats has been flooded with petitions, complaints and representations pertaining to alleged bungling in de-silting of drains by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, fast running electricity metres, privatisation of power and inflated power bills and a massive land scam in rehabilitation of Punjab migrants among other civic issues.

The pace at which Dr. Vats has been conducting proceedings during the past few months and holding officials accountable by summoning them for hearings before the Committee is giving sleepless nights to the bureaucracy and the Delhi Government. "I will not discuss anything about the proceedings of the Committee nor the contents of the petition as it involves the Privilege of the House. I will prepare the report and put it before the House for its approval," says Dr. Vats.

Officials in the Delhi Secretariat say this is the first time the Petitions Committee of the Delhi Assembly has got such a tremendous public response. Individuals and organisations are coming to the Assembly Secretariat and Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh seeking forwarding of their petitions for consideration of the Petitions Committee.

It is felt that this massive inflow of complaints is a result of the outstanding work done by Dr. Vats as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee last year. Dr. Vats had come out with a stinging report on the privatisation of the power sector in Delhi and the bungling that occurred during the process.

Interesting petitions

One of the most interesting petitions that have come up before the Petitions Committee pertains to the rehabilitation of Punjab migrants who continue to be robbed of their plots at Peeragarhi, Narela and Bawana in the Capital due to alleged connivance of Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Government officials in which builders made huge sums of money through fraudulent means.

Officials informed that a petition had been received from NGO Chetna, complaining about the failure of the MCD to provide it with complete information on the de-silting of drains for which crores are spent every year. It is learnt that Chetna has petitioned that the MCD had indulged in a big scam in cleaning of drains and hardly in 10 per cent of the cases the bed level had been achieved. It had sought information from the Corporation on its queries but did not get any satisfactory reply, so it decided to file a petition before the Petitions Committee.

Similarly the Assembly Speaker has forwarded an interesting petition pertaining to privatisation of power, working of private distribution companies, fast running electricity meters and inflated bills being served on lakhs of consumers. Eminent actor and social activist Roshan Seth is one of the signatories to the petition along with United Residents' Joint Association convenor Promod Chawla and senior Supreme Court advocate P.S. Sharda.

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