LoP criticises govt order enhancing financial powers of MCD commissioner

LoP Narang on Monday said: “When the BJP already has the mayor, the Standing Committee chairperson and a majority in the House, why is there such a compulsion to sideline elected bodies and give officials unchecked authority of Rs 50 crore?”

Terming it as a “black order”, the AAP leader pointed out that now the MCD commissioner would no longer need to place proposals before the Standing Committee or the House. “Will elected councillors now be reduced to mere showpieces? A Rs 150-crore proposal could now be split into instalments of Rs 45 crore each, allowing payments without approval from the Standing Committee or the house. This effectively nullifies the authority of the Standing Committee, the House and councillors,” he said, adding that even members of the ruling party were critical, but did not speak out.

Mukesh Goyal, a senior leader of the Indraprastha Vikas Party, said that there will be no representation of the public in decision-making with elected councillors being stripped of their powers and duties.

Earlier, proposals for projects were prepared by the respective departments of the civic body. The proposals were sent to the special and ad-hoc committees of the respective departments. After being vetted, if the cost of a project crossed Rs 5 crore, it was sent to the MCD Standing Committee, comprising 18 elected members, for financial approval and expenditure sanction. Post this, it moved in the House in front of the elected representatives of the 250 wards in Delhi for administrative approval. After a project was approved in the House, it was sent back to the Standing Committee for the tendering process.

The formation of the Standing Committee, however, was in limbo for over 2.5 years, until June last year, due to several legal and political roadblocks, and constant scuffles between the BJP and AAP. Several projects had been stalled due to this.

Meanwhile, a BJP councillor, on the condition of anonymity, said: “Will the Delhi government be answerable when something goes wrong at the lowest level, such as ward? The first person to be questioned will be the councillor. But if they take the power away from us, we will not even know what the proposal is, leave alone having a discussion on it.”

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, while announcing the move, had said, “By increasing the commissioner’s financial powers to Rs 50 crore, the implementation process of schemes will become simpler, faster, and more effective.”

Echoing the same opinion, a civic body official said that this decision will smoothen the bureaucracy and streamline projects and remove redundancy.