Diwali season in Delhi comes with politicians trying to one up each other on “gifts” for the electorate. The BJP-led municipal corporations have promised to clear pending pension payments before the festival .
At the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, pensions haven’t been paid for three months.
Standing Committee chairperson Mohan Bhardwaj has even ordered officers to work on the weekend to clear the backlog.
At the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, the opposition Congress protested the BJP for not paying pension for 18 months.
The Congress councillors even brought senior citizens in their own SUVs to protest outside the EDMC headquarters.
In all three civic bodies, the BJP is trying to release the amount before Diwali and the Congress is opposing the ECS payments, which have been made mandatory by the Lieutenant-Governor.
A senior officer said, “The politicians don’t want to lose the ability to pass out pension cheques at an event.
They will lose their say if the Delhi Government makes the payments directly through the ECS.”
The municipal corporations seem to be in a competition for the most amount of garbage lifted, with the Swachh Bharat campaign under way.
With the focus on cleaning up the city, civic officials are under pressure to prove that Delhi really is becoming cleaner. Sources say the official figures of the amount of garbage lifted every day are being inflated.
While an official release claimed that the average daily garbage collection was between 2,700 and 3,500 metric tonnes, sources said the amount had been grossly exaggerated.
For instance, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation claimed to have increased garbage collection from 2,700 MT to 3,500 MT, but a senior leader alleged that this was a falsified figure .
The leader even showed media persons the “real” figure sent via SMS by a senior officer.
According to the SMS, the SDMC’s garbage collection last week was around 1,900 MT and had never exceeded the 2,300 MT mark.
Taking a cue from the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Delhi High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has decided to have the corridors of the Lawyers’ Chamber Blocks cleaned by using the auto-scrubber machine on a daily basis.
To begin with, the machine is being used in the Chamber Block-I as a more hygienic alternative to the traditional cleaning methods such as a mop and bucket.
HCBA secretary Abhijat says the machine will be used every Monday to Friday between 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Though these are working days for the High Court, taking up the cleanliness work in the evening hours will ensure that there is minimal inconvenience to lawyers and litigants.
Auto-scrubber machine is being used as a floor cleaning device for the first time in the Delhi High Court.
The HCBA feels the decision will help improve the hygiene and sanitary conditions in the space used by lawyers for their professional work and also give solace to litigants visiting the court.
