With the Lok Sabha polls just months away and the assembly elections slated to be held next year, MLAs in the national Capital have gone on an overdrive to get development projects cleared for their constituencies. From promising water coolers to temples and mosques this summer to staging a protest to get works done, the legislators are trying all means to grab eyeballs.

On Monday, Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Model Town, Akhileshpati Tripathi, went to the office of Pushpendra Kumar, deputy commissioner (Keshav Puram zone), North Delhi Municipal Corporation, to discuss issues related to his constituency. Later, the MLA refused to leave Kumar’s office and instead lied down on the floor with his supporters “in protest”.

“The DC is unnecessarily delaying the projects I have applied for. Revamp of roads and sewer lines is stuck in my constituency because of the lackadaisical attitude of the North MCD,” Tripathi said.

While Kumar was unavailable for comments, officials in the North MCD said most of the work has already been completed. “Projects such as road carpeting and installing streetlights have been done as per the list of the legislator. Other works are going on,” an official in the DC office said.

Other legislators have already chalked out a detailed plan for the year, which is going to be the last one in their five-year tenure. AAP’s Kirari MLA, Rituraj Govind, has planned to provide electric tricycles for the differently abled in his constituency.

“Apart from distributing the tricycles through which the economically weaker sections will be able to earn by opening mobile kiosks, I also plan to install water coolers at religious sites. Other works include installing iron gates at entry and exit points of every colony, removing dark spots and setting up 10 bus queue shelters,” Govind said.

In the Assembly session held in August, 2018, the Delhi government had moved a proposal to increase the MLALAD (MLA local area development fund) from Rs 4 crore per year to Rs 10 crore. It was only last month that the 150% hike in MLALAD fund was implemented.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s MLA from Rohini, Vijender Gupta said he will be focusing on building recreational centres for senior citizens and reading rooms for students. “These are two-storey buildings, which I am getting constructed at places which earlier used to be dhalaos. My constituency has a lot of students who appear for competitive exams such as UPSC. While the first floor of these buildings has reading rooms for such students, the ground floor is a recreational centre with TVs installed for senior citizens and others,” he said.

For Bandana Kumari, AAP MLA from Shalimar Bagh, the focus will be villages in her constituency. “I am building ‘chaupals’. Two have already been built in Haiderpur village and three others will be made in the next three months,” she said.

First Published: Jan 08, 2019 14:35 IST