The Hindu : Councillors join hands to stall reforms process

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 10, 2002

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Councillors join hands to stall reforms process

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI OCT. 9. Cutting across party lines, the Councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, pursuing a purely personal agenda, have joined hands to put a spoke in the wheels of speeding up urban reforms and privatisation of various services unleashed by the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta.

Giving clear indications of their resistance to any change for the good, the Councillors, this week alone have tried to stall at least four major initiatives of Mehta. First they flexed their muscles at the House meeting on Monday and then at the Standing Committee today, indicating that Mehta would have a tough time in moving ahead with these reforms aimed at providing relief and better civic amenities to Delhiites. In fact, the action of the Councillors is likely to delay certain useful measures for at a few months.

Privatisation of toll tax, a fresh policy on tehbazari based on the sentiments of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the management and operation of community centres by private parties, NGOs and RWAs; handing over task of sanitation and cleanliness of new colonies being taken from DDA to private companies on pattern of those in Chennai and Hyderabad, are some of the major reforms which have been postponed by the deliberative wings of the civic body. It is likely that at least a few of them might not see the light of the day in the near future.

The argument put forward by the Councillors could be summed up in the words of the Standing Committee Chairman and the Leader of the House, Ram Babu Sharma, at the meeting of the Standing Committee today where he said that there were differences in perceptions and views between the deliberative and administrative wing of the MCD. This is also an indication that there is no similarity of opinion between the ruling Congress and the MCD Commissioner as to how to go about with the reforms in the much-maligned administrative set up of the MCD.

While all the Congress Councillors at the Standing Committee meeting favoured privatisation of toll tax, the proposal could not be passed today as queries were raised by the BJP Councillor, Vijender Kumar. Though questions raised and lacunae pointed out by him were genuine to which none of the Congress Councillors had any answer. In order to delay the matter, Sharma asked Mehta to come out with a report on the doubts raised in the Opposition queries, which in any case could have been sorted out by the Commissioner today itself.

Given the fact that the toll tax privatisation was reported to be the cause behind the murder of the Congress Councillor, Atma Ram Gupta, one might term Sharma's decision as cautious one, but the same could not be said about the other reforms.

The Councillors from both the Congress and the BJP today openly opposed the move to hand over the management and operation of the community centres to RWAs, NGOs and private companies. Majority of the 159 functional Community Halls of the MCD are at present in a bad shape and the civic body has been unable to maintain them. Later, at a press conference, Sharma said his party would not allow this proposal to pass. For the time being it has been postponed and sent to the Sanitation Committee for study.

Similarly, the proposal to privatise sanitation in the new colonies which in future would be taken by the civic body from various Cooperative Housing Societies and Government agencies like Delhi Development Authority, though postponed for the time being, is unlikely to be adopted. The Councillors argued that they did not get enough time to go through the proposal.

The most surprising was the postponement of the new policy on tehbazari and hawking, which would put an end to the corrupt license raj regime and harassment of the poor people. This despite fact that it has already been passed by the Standing Committee. The Opposition BJP raised some doubts on the issue, but instead of having a debate on it, the proposal was postponed by the House. Curiously enough, the MCD was scheduled to approach the Supreme Court with this very policy on Tuesday for the review of its earlier order.

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