Elections delay civic projects

Two elections in less than six months and no meeting of the all-powerful Standing Committee for more than two months now has taken a heavy toll of developmental activities in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which caters to the civic needs of more than 94 per cent of the Capital.

More than two dozen projects, considered crucial for the development of the city, is pending approval from the Standing Committee and hundred more from the various Committees and Ward Committees of the MCD which have not held a single meeting since mid-March.

Conceded a top MCD official: “While developmental works have been moving at a snails pace since September last when the Election Commission announced the dates for the Delhi Assembly elections, it has almost come to a standstill in the past three months.”

This is the reason why in the past one year reforms in the civic body, which were unleashed by the Congress administration soon after it came to power in April 2002, have taken a back seat.

“We are having trouble in implementing the reforms which were initiated earlier,” the official said. Factionalism and intense infighting among the ruling Congress Councillors have only created further hurdles in the smooth functioning of the MCD and carrying forward the reforms and developmental works.

Among important projects on which a decision from the Standing Committee is pending include computer education to its primary students, computerisation of the engineering wing, privatisation of the garbage management system, purchase of more than 32 trucks for trans-Yamuna for removal of garbage and its transportation to sanitary landfill sites.

Work on the Moti Nagar flyover project, considered to be very important for the smooth movement of traffic in this part of the Capital, has been delayed because the Standing Committee has not met for more than two months now. Same is the case with more than three dozen other projects, mainly from the education and health departments.

“This year we have not been able to complete various infrastructure improvement projects in our schools as there is no one to give sanction to these proposals,” officials said.

While the people-friendly Unit Area System for assessment of house tax in the Capital came into force on April 1, the MCD is still not geared up to implement it because the necessary permission for the massive computerisation and restructuring of the Property Tax Department is yet to come from the Standing Committee and then from the House.

Nearly half-a-dozen proposals for setting up modern parking system in various parts of the Capital, which are required urgently to reduce traffic congestion, have also been delayed by more than six months now in the absence of clearance from the Standing Committee.

Further, there are several important projects like modernisation of the Idgah Slaughter House, which are pending because of the same reason.

Officials hoped that once the new Standing Committee is formally constituted and its Chairman elected next week, the high-power committee would expedite all pending developmental works.

“The Standing Committee would now have to hurry up if it wants to fulfill the vision of the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the promise made by the Congress to the people to make Delhi a world class Capital,” the official said.

Similarly the various Ward Committees and other committees like Education Committee and Rural Areas Committee would start functioning from next week, officials said, adding that all the hurdles in the developmental works would now be removed.