BJP blames govt for dengue spurt

Hitting back at the Delhi government, the north and south municipal corporations on Friday accused it of trying to save face by blaming them for rising cases of dengue and politicising the issue. “The government is trying to save its face by laying blame on the corporations. Government should stop criticising us and focus on its own work,” Leader of the House in the SDMC Subhash Arya said. A total of over 1,700 cases have been detected so far this year and three deaths have been confirmed by the MCD as of Thursday. There are other cases of suspected dengue deaths too being reported. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit had on Thursday criticised MCD for the rising number of dengue cases alleging that they were not doing anything to contain its spread. NDMC mayor Azad Singh condemned Ms Dikshit’s statement and instead held the state government responsible for the situation. “The Delhi government is politicising the issue and taking the spread of the vector-borne disease lightly. It is the government which is responsible for the spread of dengue as many drains of the PWD were not desilted during monsoon. Clogged drains and resulting water stagnation led to mosquito breeding in areas,” the NDMC mayor said.

*** NDMC plans to legalise e-rickshaws New Delhi, Sept. 27: Battery-powered e-rickshaws may soon be legalised by the New Delhi Municipal Council as the civic body has sent a proposal in this regard to Delhi government. “I have sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the chief secretary to allow us to legalise the e-rickshaws in the NDMC areas. We already got the approval from the UTTIPEC in June last year. Once we get an approval, the NDMC will prepare the legal framework under which these rickshaws can ply,” said NDMC chairperson Jalaj Srivastava. The battery-operated rickshaws are supposed to have motor power less than 250W. — PTI