Government, civic bodies look for quick fix, ignore basics

NEW DELHI: Repeated strikes by sanitation workers notwithstanding, the AAP-led Delhi government has once again come out with a temporary solution to the salary problem and released some funds to the east corporation. Neither the government nor the BJP-led civic body seems interested in solving this issue once and and for all.
The government is sitting over the revised version of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act for the past one year.The law, which was drafted by former chief secretary of Delhi Rakesh Mehta, has a chapter on financial management. He said that had the newly-formed corporations adopted the proposed model, things would have been much easier than what they are now. “The legacy issues (of trifurcation) have not been settled,” Mehta said.
Post trifurcation, the then Congress government had constituted a committee to draft a new DMC Act. The first draft was submitted to the Arvind Kejriwal government during its 49-day stint in power in 2014. The final draft was submitted by Mehta in 2015. “Corporation laws in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, etc, have been rewritten. But Delhi is continuing with the DMC Act, which is 65 years old. It should have been rewritten,” added Mehta.
He maintains that the financial management chapter in the draft DMC Act allows the corporations to float bonds, take loan from market, something they can’t do under the present Act. “You can’t have corporations, which are fully dependent on funds from the Centre… There is no incentive for them to perform better,” said Mehta.
There are other chapters related to solid waste management, cycle rickshaw policy, etc, in the draft. Both AAP and BJP are not pushing for the implementation of the Act. According to a Delhi government spokesperson, “There is no unanimity between various departments on the Act, which was submitted in 2015.”
While BJP blaming the AAP government for the financial mess in the corporations, it has done little to push for the new Act. Subhash Arya, leader of the House, south corporation, said the draft was not showed to them and so the political wing of civic bodies had no clue about the new proposals. “We couldn’t pursue with the government about the new Act as it has not been shown to us and we don’t know what the new amendments are,” added Arya.
While east and north corporations have been facing acute financial crisis post trifurcation, senior leaders claim that the state government should focus more on empowering civic bodies in a bid to improve public services.
According to VP Pandey, leader of the House, north corporation, “Post trifurcation, the state government should have brought a new Act separately for all three corporations, which would have helped in making civic bodies self-reliant.”