MCD is now on Facebook

The civic agency will use the social networking site to interact with citizens on sanitation issues

The civic agency will use the social networking site to interact with citizens on sanitation issues

After Delhi Traffic Police earned a huge fan-following for interacting with citizens through social networking site Facebook, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to follow the suit and have its own page on the site.

Brick by brick: The MCD's new headquarters at the civic centre. file pic

So if your locality had been stinking for long and no action has been taken so far despite repeated complaints, stop running from pillar to post.u00a0 Just log into Facebook and register your complaint.

Delhi will be the first city in the world to use Facebook as a platform to interact with its people in context of sanitation and garbage cleaning issues. "The Facebook page will be aimed at monitoring cleanliness and garbage removal in the city. The citizens can also interact with us. They can upload pictures, videos or file a complaint regarding sanitation condition in their area which will then be addressed quickly," said Anshu Prakash, Additional Commissioner, Engineering, MCD.

There are a total of 2,500 garbage-dumping sites in the areas under MCD,s jurisdiction and their locations will be listed on the page. "The civic agency also plans to introduce modern ways and techniques of functioning and this step will definitely help in that. We are already receiving positive responses to this move," added Prakash.

Officials said the move would help the civic body interact with citizens in a better way and ensure transparency. The Facebook page will also help fix accountability and responsibility, they said.
In order to monitor the page, the civic agency has also set up a control room where one assistant engineer and a junior engineer will monitor it. "All our

engineers will be looking after the department. The page will be under them and they will transfer the problems to the respective departments," Prakash added.

Depending on the success of the project, the civic agency will include more areas like health, cleaning of roads, complaints about sanitation workers among others on this page.

Taxing times ahead?

The opposition Congress in MCD on Monday strongly opposed the hike in property tax proposed by the municipal commissioner in the civic body,,s budget for the next fiscal and lambasted the BJP-led corporation for "failing" to generate enough revenue. Initiating the debate on the budget unveiled by Commissioner K S Mehra on December 8, Leader of Opposition J K Sharma said most of the proposals mentioned in last financial year,,s budget regarding parking and other projects were repeated this time.
Sharma told a meeting of the Standing Committee that Congress "strongly opposes" the proposed five per cent hike in house tax which, he described as "anti-people and especially anti-poor".
He claimed that the across-the-board hike would lead to greater financial burden for low-income group colonies and less burden for high-income group ones. The Congress leader also flayed Chairman of the Standing Committee Yogender Chandolia, who had outrightly rejected the proposed hike soon after the budget was unveiled at the meeting in December.

Net gains

Citizens can upload pictures, videos or file a complaint regarding sanitation condition in their area.
MCD,s 2,500 garbage-dumping sites to be listed on the page.
A control room with one assistant engineer and a junior engineer will monitoru00a0 the page.