Ahead of the municipal polls, residents’ representatives are taking every opportunity to point out instances of civic apathy, and also hand over their list of unfulfilled demands.
Ahead of the Delhi municipal polls, candidates from various political parties are making all-out efforts to woo the voters with a long list of promises. Meanwhile, the representatives of RWAs and cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) have come up with their own set of demands.
The upcoming MCD polls, scheduled for April 23, will be an opportunity for residents to raise their voices.
Here’s what’s happening.
On April 11, when Anand Kumar, a municipal councillor of the area (Congress), appealed to residents to elect him again, he only evoked public ire.
Vidya Joshi, president of the Paryatan Vihar Apartments managing committee, retorted, “What have you done in the past one year? We supported you because you made several important promises — but you did nothing! The drains around my apartment are still broken, and still not covered.”
Before Kumar could reply, MK Malik, a member of the Joint Front of East Delhi RWAs and a resident of Capital Apartments, handed him a list of civic issues they have been facing since long, such as clogged drains, garbage disposal and encroachment.
Other members, too, spoke up about their grievances. They said in the last municipal elections, residents were assured that garbage would be collected from their homes and segregated before being dumped at a landfill site, and that dhalaos would be cleaned at least once a day.
But none of the demands have been met.
“Since the last election in 2012, no changes have come about. East Delhi’s residential colonies and roads are still dirty. And the corporation’s door-to door garbage collection remains a lip service,” said BS Vohra, president of the Joint Front.
Pawan Vasudeva, president of Una Enclave, a CGHS in Mayur Vihar Phase I, complained, “We had to, in fact, hire private garbage collectors! We are paying for them... this has been our experience in the past few years.”
Meanwhile, United Residents’ Joint Action (URJA), a south-Delhi-based RWA organisation, prepared a memorandum for all 272 municipal wards.
The memorandum, to which City Spidey has access, reads: “Repeated leadership change has not made any big difference in the city’s civic issues. Increasing number of motor vehicles, population, illegal construction, dengue, sewage and solid-waste discharges have remained the same.”
It further adds: “A committee of RWA representatives, under the chairmanship of the municipal councillor for each ward, would be highly effective in solving the problems and finding solutions for the development of the municipal wards.”
