North body threatens to move court against Delhi government

If delimitation file is not cleared in a week

After waiting for almost three months since coming to power, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation has issued an ultimatum to the Delhi government to clear the delimitation file or the corporation will move court.

Mayor meets L-G

North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal met the Lieutenant-Governor on Wednesday, requesting his intervention in clearing of the file regarding newly marked zones.

Senior civic officials said the file was rejected and returned by the office of Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday citing “frivolous reasons”.

The L-G reportedly assured the North Corporation that the file will be cleared within a week and has sent it to the government ordering its approval. Officials said work cannot start unless statutory and ward committees are formed.

“The reason the Delhi government has given for rejecting the file is that new zones will confuse people. It has been three months and all the work is stuck only because the government cannot clear a file. If dengue and chikungunya cases go through the roof this year, the government will be quick to pin the blame on us without realising its mistake,” Ms. Agarwal said.

“The present zone markings are confusing because some parts of a ward are with one zone and the others with another zone,” she said.

For example, Bawana assembly constituency has six wards, of which two fall in Narela zone and four in Rohini zone. Similarly, the Mayor said, Civil Lines zone and Narela-Rohini zone have 29 and 35 wards respectively, which makes them unmanageable by one Zonal Deputy Commissioner. Hence it is necessary to restructure these zones and form a third zone for efficient governance, she said.

While proposing the additional zone as Keshavpuram, she said utmost care was taken so that no additional financial burden is incurred by the corporation. The merger of City and Sadar-Paharganj zones was also suggested so that surplus staff is utilised in the proposed new zone.

Ms. Agarwal alleged that this ‘lax attitude’ of the AAP was politically motivated.