CM angry over encroachments

New Delhi: After the trifurcation issue, MCD officials were on the receiving end of the CM’s displeasure on Tuesday for the increasing encroachments and unauthorised constructions springing up in Delhi.

The review meeting, which saw the entire top brass of the civic authority as well as NDMC turn up, also had issues relating to Commonwealth Games 2010 such as removal of hoardings, encroachments and improvement of sanitation as other main topics of discussion.

MCD has now claimed it will change the face of Delhi in the next four months. Chairing the meeting, CM Sheila Dikshit is reported to have expressed her dissatisfaction with the work of the civic agencies, especially MCD.

Asking the bodies not to politicise the issue, she reportedly told them to crack down on unauthorised constructions and encroachments. She also reviewed the work the two civic bodies have to do for the Games.

Said standing committee chairman Ram Kishan Singhal: “We will take action against illegal encroachments, especially along seven-feet-wide roads. I’m going to have a meeting with the deputy commissioners of the 12 zones on Wednesday. They have already been directed to visit their zones at least twice a week.

The officials need to work harder to achieve the desired results. We also need more staff. Sanitation is another important issue that we will look into. We have told the CM that we will change the face of the city in four months.”

Denying that any talk of getting the civic agency under the jurisdiction of Delhi government came up for discussion, leader of House Subhash Arya said that the CM assured them that MCD would not face any budget constraint as far as they did the work assigned to them, specially with regard to the Games.

Said Arya: “We were told to improve the conditions of roads and put up high-mast lights in parks and other areas.”

With MCD being pulled up for its poor performance recently, its political brass is trying hard to fast-track its pending projects and meetings are being held on a weekly basis with officials.

–Agencies