Delhi government weakening MCD: Mayor

NEW DELHI - The Delhi governments move to take over roads on Delhi’s outskirts is aimed at making the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) powerless and weak, Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney said Thursday.

Public Works Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said the government was considering a proposal to take charge of the roads on the outskirts of the city, calling them “pathetic” and “mismanaged”.

While the Congress runs the Delhi government, the MCD, the biggest of three civic agencies in the capital, is controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Said a livid Delhi mayor who is from the BJP: “It is the conspiracy of the Delhi government as MCD is engaged in providing civic services to the citizens of the city more effectively while the Delhi Government is unable to create a positive impact on the citizens.”

He said the Delhi government had already taken away some departments from the MCD. “Now they want to take away roads too.”

This, he said, violated the 74th amendment of the constitution which envisages giving more powers to local bodies and panchayats.