New Delhi: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over her government's proposal to split the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) into five civic bodies as politically motivated.
The provincial Delhi government had recently passed the resolution to this effect and has sent its recommendation to the federal home ministry.
"The move is politically motivated and smacks of prejudice. It's aimed at grabbing power through the backdoor," Vijender Gupta, president of the Delhi state unit of BJP, said.
Dikshit ‘jealous'
Gupta termed the proposal as a turf war being fought by the Congress party-led Delhi government. The MCD is under BJP control.
"Roughly 97 per cent of Delhi is under the MCD, the same as the Delhi government. With personal experience I can say that the MCD standing committee chairman is more powerful than the Delhi chief minister, which is the root cause of Dikshit's jealousy," Gupta, a former MCD standing committee chairman, said.
If the proposal is accepted by the federal government, the number of municipal wards will increase from the existing 270 to about 400, to be equally divided to five civic bodies.
Dikshit had constituted a three-member ministerial committee comprising A.K. Walia, Rajkumar Chauhan and Arvinder Singh Lovely which submitted its recommendation last month. It was accepted by the state cabinet. The committee recommended that the population in each ward should be lowered from the existing 50,000 to 40,000. This would increase the number of wards in each assembly segment from the existing four to six.
The MCD is due to go to polls early next year.
"It's unfortunate, and the ill-will of the chief minister is clearly visible. It will create further problems for the residents of the city who already suffer due to multiplicity of authorities in the city," Gupta said.
The MCD came into being in 1958 after several smaller municipal committees were brought under one roof.
The provincial Delhi government had recently passed the resolution to this effect and has sent its recommendation to the federal home ministry.
"The move is politically motivated and smacks of prejudice. It's aimed at grabbing power through the backdoor," Vijender Gupta, president of the Delhi state unit of BJP, said.
Dikshit ‘jealous'
Gupta termed the proposal as a turf war being fought by the Congress party-led Delhi government. The MCD is under BJP control.
"Roughly 97 per cent of Delhi is under the MCD, the same as the Delhi government. With personal experience I can say that the MCD standing committee chairman is more powerful than the Delhi chief minister, which is the root cause of Dikshit's jealousy," Gupta, a former MCD standing committee chairman, said.
If the proposal is accepted by the federal government, the number of municipal wards will increase from the existing 270 to about 400, to be equally divided to five civic bodies.
Dikshit had constituted a three-member ministerial committee comprising A.K. Walia, Rajkumar Chauhan and Arvinder Singh Lovely which submitted its recommendation last month. It was accepted by the state cabinet. The committee recommended that the population in each ward should be lowered from the existing 50,000 to 40,000. This would increase the number of wards in each assembly segment from the existing four to six.
The MCD is due to go to polls early next year.
"It's unfortunate, and the ill-will of the chief minister is clearly visible. It will create further problems for the residents of the city who already suffer due to multiplicity of authorities in the city," Gupta said.
The MCD came into being in 1958 after several smaller municipal committees were brought under one roof.
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