New Delhi: A delegation led by Delhi Mayor
Rajni Abbi on Saturday met Home Minister P Chidambaram and insisted
him not to go ahead with the "erroneous move" of trifurcating
the MCD as it would only lead to trouble in delivering timely
services to citizens.
The delegation claimed the setting up of Directorate of
Local Bodies and vesting it with powers such as right to issue
any order to three Corporations and monitoring toll tax of the
was in clear violation of the Constitution.
Besides the Delhi Mayor, the delegation comprised of
Deputy Mayor Anil Kumar Sharma, Leader of the House Subhash
Arya, Standing Committee Chairman Yogender Chandolia and
former Standing Committee Chairman Vijender Gupta.
At the 90-minute meeting, Abbi and other leaders told
Chidambaram that the trifurcation was not in the interests of
nearly 1.67 crore of Delhiites "as any such move would only
lead to disturbance in providing timely and hassle-free civic
services to them".
"The trifurcation is a very complicated issue and the
welfare and the opinion of the public must be taken before
arriving at any decision. We also insisted that the Minister
should not come under pressure from any section, including
that of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit," Abbi said after the
meeting.
Considering the geography of Delhi, the Mayor said that
there is no scope for further multiplying the authorities in
the capital.
The delegation pointed out to the Minister that after
MCD's division, there is no natural boundary which will act as
a barrier to define the jurisdiction of North, South or East.
Only in East Delhi, river Yamuna could be roughly taken as a
boundary.
"In such a situation, the work relating to roads, drains,
parks will very much be affected as the civic bodies of the
North, South and East will clash among themselves over
jurisdictions like what Delhi government does with MCD. In
that situation, the people will ultimately suffer," Abbi said.
The delegation also told Chidambaram that the proposed
move will lead to an additional financial burden of Rs 1,000
crore, the amount which will be recovered only from the
taxpayers. "Besides, the civic body in the recent past
initiated many e-governance projects to provide timely and
hassle-free services to citizens.
"The e-governance projects are on in full steam. Any move
for trifurcation would lead to serious imbalances and untold
obstacles in the march of progress of the city towards
transparency, effectiveness and time-bound delivery of
services.
"The three civic bodies would have to start afresh in
this regard following trifurcation, amounting to heavy
financial burden," they said.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 19, 2011, 19:04