SDMC, govt tussle ahead of polls

Civic bodies feel Cong may hijack development work to woo voters

With an eye on assembly elections, both the BJP-run municipal corporations and the Congress-run Delhi government want to derive maximum political mileage from regularistion of unauthorised colonies recently.

With BJP fearing that the decision of Delhi government could well prove to be a masterstroke of the Sheila Diskhit government in context of the soon-to-be-held assembly polls, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation passed a resolution on Wednesday arguing that the agencies of Delhi government should not be allowed to carry out development work in the recently regularised colonies.

“Once a colony gets regularised, it gets the status of Unauthorised Regularised (UR) colony. Only the civic bodies are entitled to carry out development work in UR colonies. Therefore, the agencies of Delhi government cannot carry development work. We have directed the commissioner to ensure that no other agency should be allowed to carry out development work in the colonies falling in the limits of SDMC,” said leader of House in south corporation, Subhash Arya.

Apart from the development fund earmarked in the budgetary proposals of the corporation, funds of only councillors, MLAs and MPs could be used for development in UR colonies, he added. Delhi government regularised 895 colonies last year, out of which 312 had come up on private land.

The governmnet has allowed development work and clearance of layout plan of the 312 coloneis in the first phase. Out of 312 colonies, 183 fall in the limits of SDMC.

Funds of several agencies of Delhi government like DSIIDC, Slum Area Development Board and Trans Yamuna Devlopment Board are used for development in unauthorised colonies. Meanwhile, the corporation has also decided to expedite the process of making the local area plan of all the municipal wards. The work of preparing the local area plan as per the Delhi Master Plan was initiated by the unified MCD.

Planning

“Currently, the work of preparing local area plan is going on in only 32 wards across the three corporations. However, now the chief town planner and the concerned department have been directed to prepare the local area plan of all the 104 wards of SDMC at the earliest,” said Arya.

Leader of oppnwalks out

The standing committee meeting of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Wednesday saw uproarious scenes with leader of opposition walking out over allegations of malpractice in recent transfer of engineers, reports PTI.

The objection of Congress leader Farhad Suri was to the transfer 77 engineers last week. Allegedly, despite vigilance inquiry against some, they had been transferred to sensitive posts.

Also, Suri objected to the engineers remaining in sensitive posts for a period beyond three years despite a rule to the contrary.

“It is a rule that officials in sensitive posts will be transferred after three years,” he said. He said some of the recently shifted assistant, executive and joint engineers, had been in their posts for several years.