With the crucial Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections set to lock the fates of the contenders today after a 10-year BJP rule, here is what the Delhiites want from the civic agencies. The focus is on parking lots, education, waste management, hawkers, encroachment and health services, to name a few.
Building, maintaining Parking Lots
With rising number of vehicles and limited space, parking is one of the prime concerns for motorists. The mandate to build and maintain parking lots lies with Delhi’s municipal bodies. With just 250 parking sites with a total vehicle capacity of 50,000, civic
bodies have failed to fulfill parking needs. About 70-80 lakh vehicles ply on Delhi roads.
MCD leases out parking lots in the national capital to private contractors to manage and run through a tendering process. Sources say MCD hardly monitors the management of parking lots. In cases of illegal parking, MCD officials say the responsibility for action against them lies with Delhi Police.
Solid Waste Collection, Management and Segregation
With over 9,000 metric tonnes of daily garbage generation in the city and only three functional landfill sites—Ghazipur, Bhalaswa and Okhla, which are bursting at the seams—the national capital is staring at a garbage disposal crisis. New landfill sites are not being developed and the three existing sites are way beyond the permissible limit of 20 meters in height.
The 50,000-plus sanitation workers in all the three MCDs have gone on strike five times in two years over non-payment of salaries. In the last 10 years, the BJP has promised to find solutions to garbage disposal, such as converting waste into electricity, but only one such site was started on a trial basis last year.
Of the 657 Community Toilet Complex (CTC) in North Delhi, 134 were constructed in the last five years. East Delhi has 234 CTCs, of which 86 were built in the last five years. South MCD has 445 community toilets, of which 110 were constructed in 2016.
Veterinary Services
The municipal bodies are responsible for controlling the menace of stray dogs, cattle or monkeys. MCDs have outsourced dog sterilisation to NGOs Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care and Greenechoes, but they have failed to do the needful. Now, the civic bodies are building two dog sterilisation centres.
Officials say four such centres exist in North Delhi, three are under construction and the target is to sterilise 5,000 dogs per day.
MCD’s attempt to hire professional monkey catchers has fallen flat. North Delhi Municipal Corporation recorded 11,314 dog bites in 2016, East Delhi Municipal Corporation recorded 4,783 cases, and South Delhi Municipal Corporation reported 413 dog bites. Although no formal stray dog census has been done in Delhi, the dog population is pegged at around 5 lakh.
Encroachment
Illegal construction and encroachment on roads in unauthorised colonies take place after bribing police and MCD officials. Police and MCD are responsible for keeping a check on such encroachments.
Police are the first to be informed when a construction starts. People say they have to pay money for things such sa storing building material on roadsides.
Primary Education
As per the Delhi Municipal Act, imparting primary education to children from nursery to Class V is MCD’s responsibility, and it runs 1,600 schools across the city. But over 49,000 students have left the schools due to their poor standard of education and lack of basic facilities. Corporations often get complaints about misbehavior and lax attitude of teachers. MCD officials admit parents think the schools—which are up to Class V only—are no good and prefer Delhi government schools.
In 2015, 3.35 lakh students were enrolled in schools falling under the jurisdiction of North MCD, but the number fell to 3 lakh in 2016. A requirement of 100 principals, 800 teachers and 50 school inspectors has been registered in a recent report submitted by 720 schools.
In contrast, the Delhi government has been increasing its budgetary allocation for education in the last two years. In financial year 2015-16, it was `9,836 crore, and was hiked by more than 8 per cent for 2016-17. The Delhi government runs 1,024 schools across the city.
Licensing
Approving building plans for construction of properties is one of the major functions of MCDs. Every establishment has to get its layout map approved by MCD before building. Every restaurant owner has to obtain a health/trade licence from MCD or the health department before starting business. From last year, the corporations started providing a hassle-free process with less documentation by granting online trade licenses. South Delhi corporations, which gets the highest number of demands, gave over 100 trade licenses in the last four months. Delhi has 450,000 street vendors, of which only 12,000 are registered with MCD.
Community Services
In the last 10 months, North MCD hasn’t paid pension to the aged and differently-abled. East MCD hasn’t been able to do so for the last three-and-a-half years. The civic body pays pension to 200,000 pensioners, and needs `112 crore annually for this. Delhi government owes grants worth `1,139 crore to the three MCDs and `322 crore worth of municipal reform funds. MCD also looks after swimming pool and gym registration and maintenance of community centres.
Property and Toll Tax
Property tax is the backbone of revenue for civic bodies. AAP promised that if it comes to power, it will eliminate property tax. All the three MCDs collectively collected `1,550 crore in FY 2016-17 from property tax, with South MCD being the biggest earner with `775 crore followed by North MCD with `648 crore and East MCD with `127 crore. The combined revenue from toll tax is `789 crore, with North MCD taking the lead by earning `488 crore followed by South MCD with `210 crore and East MCD with `88 crore in FY 2016-17.
Maintenance of Markets
Chandni Chowk and Shajahanbad areas of the city have not seen the development that the rest of the city has. With no town vending committee in place, parking and street hawkers are the major problems here. Lajpat Nagar and Hauz Khas market are rampant with illegal construction, putting lives at risk.
Health Services
Taking preventive steps to combat outbreak of disease is the MCD’s responsibility. Delhi recorded 36,312 cases of vector-borne disease and 100 deaths in the last seven years. Fumigation and other vector-borne disease control is MCD’s responsibility. North and East MCD together run six hospitals. Unable to run Hindu Rao Hospital under North MCD, officials want the Delhi government operate the facility, which may happen soon after elections.