Delhi MPs turn blind eye to civic issues

New Delhi: Parliamentarians from Delhi have turned a blind eye to Delhi’s civic problems. No Member of Parliament (MP) from the capital in the past many years has attended a meeting of the civic bodies, despite being a member of one. 

Their absence raises a question when the civic bodies are facing issues such as lack of sanitation, waste disposal, financial crisis and dengue and chikangunya. Except for a few AAP MLAs, also nominated civic body members, others hardly participate in the meetings. 

Interestingly, MPs only mark their attendance during voting for election of mayors and deputy mayors in order to ensure victory of their respective party candidates.

Senior BJP leader and former councillor Subhash Arya said once as a Lok Sabha MP of South Delhi, Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had attended a House meeting.

Mukesh Goel, a councillor and leader of Congress in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), told this newspaper as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, all the MPs from Delhi are also corporation members.

“After trifurcation, MPs became members of those civic bodies in which his or her constituency falls. Like councillors, the MPs too have all the rights and privileges. But since the past three years, no BJP MP has attended any House meeting to know the real issues on the ground. They only do lip service talking about inadequate civic services and play politics with AAP government,” Goel added. 

As per the attendance record of parliamentarians accessed by this newspaper, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari and East Delhi MP Maheish Girri attended only two meetings out of 59 House meetings held in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) from June 1, 2014.

In the NDMC, out of 68 House meetings, Mr Tiwari and Union minister Harsh Vardhan attended only one meeting, while MP from New Delhi Meenakshi Lekhi and MP from North West Delhi Dr Udit Raj attended two NDMC House meetings. 

Interestingly, none of the four MPs in the NDMC attended any House meeting this year. AAP legislators Som Dutt and Rituraj Govind had attended eight and five House NDMC meetings from June 2016 to September 2016. When asked about his absence from House meetings, Mr Tiwari feigned ignorance about his role as an EDMC and NDMC member. 

“MPs are members of the House and, yes, they have voting rights in mayoral polls. Why should MPs attend House meetings when they can call councillors etc to know about civic works and give instructions,” he asked. 

In SDMC, Ms Lekhi, South and West Delhi MPs Ramesh Bidhuri and P. Verma had attended three meetings in the past three years, while Mr Girri attended two meetings.