Nearly every Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House session since January this year has seen the same pattern repeat itself — commotion, sloganeering, and adjournment. However, even if the House is called off early without any discussion on public interest issues, the municipality still has to bear the expenses of convening the session, each of which costs the exchequer ₹3 lakh, multiple officials told The Hindu.
The civic agency has convened 10 regular sessions from January to October in accordance with the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, which mandates holding a minimum of one House session every month, giving a chance to the 250 elected councillors to speak about the issues concerning their wards and citizens. In addition, several special sessions are convened during the tabling of the budget and the various elections — Standing Committee, zonal panels, and mayoral polls — that are held every year.
Sharing a breakdown of the expenses incurred in convening a House session, a senior official said each councillor is paid ₹300 to attend a session, which totals to ₹75,000 for all the members. “We also have to procure meal boxes, which cost between ₹90 to ₹100 for all the members, attending mediapersons, and a few employees on duty, all of which adds up to around ₹35,000,” the official said.
Another official said printing the agenda, which usually runs into 250-300 pages, ahead of each session is also a cost-intensive exercise.
“A copy has to be printed for all the councillors and the officials concerned at our office in Civil Lines. These documents, along with several other necessary papers, are then transported to our headquarters in central Delhi,” said the official. He added that several other costs incurred to maintain the House, such as the upkeep of escalators, lifts, and electronic items, including public address systems and laptops, amount to a substantial sum.
Down the drainWhile leaders of the three major parties — the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Congress — agree that constant ruckus has affected the civic agency’s functioning, they hold each other responsible for the loss of public money.
Durgesh Pathak, the MCD in-charge of AAP, said, “In the last ten months, taxpayers’ money has been wasted because of the way sessions have unfolded.” He added, “If you ever watch the footage of the House proceedings, you’ll see the BJP councillors creating mayhem because they know if the House functions normally, the corruption they did for 15 years will come out in the open.”
Another AAP leader said, “The BJP is deliberately avoiding discussions in the House as part of a well-laid conspiracy. Every time a meeting is called, their councillors disrupt the proceedings and create chaos instead of a constructive atmosphere.”
The BJP was in power in the three erstwhile civic bodies — North Delhi Municipal Corporation, East Delhi Municipal Corporation, and South Delhi Municipal Corporation — till 2022, before they were unified again into a single entity.
However, Leader of the Opposition in the MCD Raja Iqbal Singh (BJP), said, “There has been an obvious monetary loss whenever a House is conducted, but another loss, which cannot be accounted for easily, is that of the public welfare.”
“Not having any real discussion in the MCD House has resulted in the lack of public welfare schemes, overflowing drains, among other issues,” he added.
Former Mayor and Congress leader Farhad Suri said, “While on paper the cost of running each session is ₹3 lakh, it is impossible to calculate the lost man-hours, as every MCD employee, from top bureaucrats to sanitation workers, is engaged in the House’s functioning.”
Published - November 13, 2024 12:27 am IST
