MCD's 'Aapke Dwar' policy gets flak

Even as the municipal corporation is losing out revenue from  several kiosks meant to provide multiple services from  a single window, a private company is allegedly earning revenue by conducting other businesses from them.

The matter was raised by the opposition members before the standing committee of South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Tuesday. The members alleged that the loss of revenue has been due to the callousness of the corporation officials and failure of the political establishment to run the project as well as in dealing with the litigation that cropped up later.

“When 2,000 sites were to be handed over to the concessioniare Bartronics India Ltd, why only 236 sites were actually handed over to them,” said leader of opposition in South Corporation, Farhad Suri. “Moreover, when five post-dated cheques deposited by concessionaire got dishonoured and a criminal case was decided to be filed, why the case was not filed despite the fact that a council was engaged for the purpose?” he said.

In November 2008, the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi had launched a project named as “MCD Aaapke Dwar”.

The project aimed at installing kiosks at 2,000 sites to provide multiple government services and other private sector services to a citizen under a single window.

The kiosks were allotted in 2009 to Bartronics India Ltd for a period of nine years.
The company was required to pay an annual fee of Rs 101 crore to the corporation.
However, the entire project proved to be a failure as the MCD handed over only 33 sites to the concessionaire, apart from 203 alternate sites.

Later, other legal issues cropped up due to boucning of cheques of the company.
Of the 200-odd alloted sites, 162 belong to the South Corporation.

“The commissioner has been directed to conduct a survey of all the kiosks and submit a status report during the next meeting of the standing committee,” said  standing committee chairman, Rajesh Gehlot.