Day before MC meet,Cong announces populist agenda items; Oppn cries foul

Among the agenda items that would be tabled are giving wages at rates fixed by the Deputy Commissioner to all the contractual employees of the Municipal Corporation. A substantial part of these would be in the sanitation wing of the civic body. The MC would incur an additional financial burden of Rs 7.7 crore once this is implemented.

Another agenda item is about giving licences to street hawkers. All the hawkers in the city would be given licences to sell their items on V-5 and V-6 roads. They would not be allowed to stand at one place and sell their goods. With there being no cap on the numbers,the scheme may end up attracting hawkers from the adjoining states as well. The Congress leaders said that this would put an end to encroachments on government land.

Giving licences to rickshaw pullers instead of registering rickshaws,as has been the practice,has also been proposed. Rickshaw stands would be provided in Sector 17 as well as southern sectors. Bylaws for these schemes would be prepared once these are approved in the House.

Bansal said that these were long-pending demands of different sections. These measures would put an end to encroachments and benefit a large section of society.

Generally,as a practice,the agenda is only circulated among the members of the House and made public after the meeting. However,this time,the Congress decided to go ahead and publicise the agenda with all the items pertaining to the economically weaker sections.

Mayor Subhash Chawla said that the schemes would benefit a large number of people. (It is estimated that there are 12,000 rickshaws in the city,but only 1,200 are registered.) He said that 10,000 families would be benefited by the licences to street hawkers and more than 2,000 by DC rates to contractual employees.

‘Congress has used Mayor’s office’

Arun Sood,leader of BJP-SAD in the MC House,said,“The Congress has used the Mayor’s office for political gains. The party is now using the House for its benefit. Calling the Congress MP and councillors of the party to announce the agenda in advance has set a wrong precedent.”

BSP councillor Jannat Jahan said that the MC House was not run just by the Congress. The BJP and BSP were also a part of it and announcements about the agenda should not have been made by the Congress in this manner. Criticising the Congress move,she said that this should not have been done.

‘Don’t run away from debate’

Mayor Subhash Chawla appealed to the councillors of the Opposition “not to run from debate”. He said,“In the past two years all agenda items have been passed. But the Opposition has not debated issues properly. Most of the agenda items in this meeting are about development and policy making. The councillors should hold a discussion on policies.” Chawla said what showed the lack of seriousness of the BJP-SAD councillors about merger of villages,one person had signed on behalf of everyone in the representation submitted by them.