The Hindu : New Delhi News : “BJP trying to snatch credit from Congress”

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Saturday, Nov 03, 2007
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New Delhi

“BJP trying to snatch credit from Congress”

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Sheila complains to Union Home Minister

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit

NEW DELHI: The tussle for taking credit for various development works between the BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Congress-ruled Delhi Government is now threatening to snowball into a major issue in the Capital. Also, with Congress legislators peeved at attempts by certain BJP councillors to corner all the praise for works undertaken through the MLAs’ area development fund, a precarious situation has arisen in which there is a possibility that development activities through these funds may suffer.

The issue has reached such a passé that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to complain about the conduct of the MCD - which comes under Mr. Patil’s Ministry - at large and the councillors in particular. She also told Mr. Patil that the BJP was trying to thrust its responsibilities on the Congress Government and also trying to take all the credit for the various development activities initiated by the Congress MLAs.

“This is something which is not acceptable to us. When it comes to funds, they use the MLAs’ local area development fund under which Rs.2 crore is provided per annum for each Assembly segment, but when it comes to inauguration of the schemes, the MLAs are not even being invited for them,” lamented Ms. Dikshit.

Because of this, she said, there was a lot of resentment among the Congress MLAs.

It was soon after her meeting with the Congress MLAs from South Delhi and New Delhi earlier this week in which she and Delhi Congress president J. P. Agarwal had heard out their grievances that Ms. Dikshit decided to meet Mr. Patil to convey to him the feelings of the party MLAs. In the wake of the large number of Blueline bus killings, Ms. Dikshit also urged the Union Home Minister to work towards improving the performance of the traffic police as it was really responsible for ensuring discipline on the city roads.

The Chief Minister is also peeved at the manner in which the MCD tried to pass off the job of checking the monkey menace on the Delhi Government following the death of Deputy Mayor S. S. Bajwa. He had died following a fall after being attacked by monkeys at his residence.

“The job of the MCD is to keep the city clean, to maintain certain roads and to keep a check on all the animal-related activity. But they have failed in all these respects,” Ms. Dikshit charged, adding that while the Delhi Government was definitely willing to help on all these counts it would not take blame for the MCD’s lapses.

“The other day Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra, Leader of the MCD House Subhash Arya and Chairman of the MCD Standing Committee Vijender Gupta had met me to discuss the monkey menace. They said there are about 40,000 monkeys and checking them is the Delhi Government’s responsibility. I told them this is not true as the responsibility lies with them,” said the Chief Minister.

However, Ms. Dikshit added that the Delhi Government was willing to cooperate with the MCD on tackling the problem and in providing them with trucks and other equipment to keep the city clean. But, she said, it would also be wise on the part of the BJP to start working in the MCD and not indulge in the blame game alone.

“When it comes to maintenance of roads, the MCD roads are the worst. They should set their house in order first,” she said.

Ms. Dikshit warned that if the BJP continues to thwart development activities and indulge in politics alone, then the Congress would not hesitate to go out to the people to call its bluff.

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