By IANS,
New Delhi : Hundreds of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) councillors and activists Friday protested against Delhi government’s attempts to “take over” the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The protesters took out a march from Shaheed Park in central Delhi to the Delhi Secretariat but they were detained near ITO by police. They were released after an hour.
Strongly criticising the Sheila Dixit government for depriving the MCD from undertaking the development work by constituting the Rural Board and Slum Board, Leader of the House in the MCD Subhash Arya said: “The state government is interfering in our work and denying us the right to carry out any development works”.
“The move of state government to transfer the slum department, currently under the MCD’s purview, to the Delhi government proves this,” he added.
Vijender Gupta, the former chairman of MCD’s standing committee, said: “The state government is not cooperating with MCD. Cutting short financial assistance, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is curtailing our rights”.
“The step-motherly treatment by the Delhi government cannot be tolerated by the councillors of MCD,” he added.
Claiming a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had put the Delhi government “in the dock”, BJP’s Delhi unit chief Om Prakash Kohli said: The government, against which the CAG has made serious charges has no right to deprive the MCD which is an elected body and leave it crippled.”