MCD division sparks war of words

After Delhi Cabinet gives its nod to divide the civic body, BJP leaders say the move will be a burden on the common man

MCD division sparks war of words

After Delhi Cabinet gives its nod to divide the civic body, BJP leaders say the move will be a burden on the common man

In a Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday, the government decided to accept the recommendations of a high-powered committee, which had in its report last week favoured the splitting of the MCD.

"The Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of the committee. Now, we will send a proposal to the Centre for approval. After that, it will be presented in the Delhi Assembly," said Health Minister A K Walia, who also headed the committee.

The Delhi Government, which has been critical of MCD's functioning under the BJP, had set up a committee to examine possible division of the civic body. Initially, when the committee was formed, it was headed by Walia and had BJP's Jagdish Mukhi and V K Malhotra as members. However, the BJP leadersu00a0 resigned from the committee just ahead of its first meeting, accusing the government of trying to divide the MCD to gain political mileage.

The BJP leaders were then replaced by Raj Kumar Chauhan and Arvinder Singh Lovely, both from Congress. The committee, which met four times to finalise the recommendations, also favoured increase in number of wards in the city. It recommended that each Assembly constituency should have six wards.

The councillors are however unhappy over government's decision saying the division will only weaken the civic body. "There are some areas from where we get very less amount of property tax, but the same is balanced by recovery of tax from other areas. If we divide the Corporation, the income will also be restricted to that particular area. This will affect the uniform development of the city," said Subhash Arya, Leader of the House inu00a0 MCD.

Under Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 2007, the minimum number of the councillors was 272-300. The government has now decided to increase the number of councillors to 408. This move too has been resented by the leaders.

"How will they afford more councillors?u00a0 The chief minister is simply trying to make things more difficult for general public. We will definitely take up the matter with Union Home Ministry," said Yogendra Chandolia, Chairman, Standing Committee, MCD.

"The financial condition of the corporation is not stable right now and they are talking about dividing it into five smaller units. With this decision, they will then have to appoint five mayors, five commissioners and five new buildings for the people. How will they pay the salaries and how will they bear the expenditure?," said P R Sawhney, Mayor.

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