The Hindu : New Delhi News : Councillors not interested in retaining laptops

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Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007
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New Delhi

Councillors not interested in retaining laptops

Sandeep Joshi

The civic body is demanding a high price, they feel

NEW DELHI: Despite all the hue and cry over surrendering of laptops given to them by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, a large number of outgoing MCD Councillors are no longer interested in keeping the IBM ThinkPad laptops in view of their depreciated value and the high price demanded by the civic body.

Already over a dozen Councillors, including Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri, MCD Standing Committee Chairman J. K. Sharma, Deputy Chairman Tarsem Bansal and Leader of Opposition Subhash Arya, have surrendered their laptops, while several others are also planning to do the same. The last date for depositing the money is March 31.

Under its e-governance initiative, the MCD in January 2005 had given 134 new IBM ThinkPad laptops, valued at Rs.50,800 apiece and loaded with software in both Hindi and English, to all the Councillors free of cost.

However, at the last meeting of the MCD House earlier this month, the majority of the Councillors had opposed the MCD administration's move to return the laptops and offered to purchase the same at depreciated value.

The MCD had now asked for Rs.30,519 for each laptop and another Rs. 1,000 for the carry-bag and software loaded in it, which the Councillors are finding too high a price to pay for old laptops.

However, there are some Councillors who still want to retain the laptops as they contain vital information about the MCD and their constituencies.

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