The civic body has decided that it will have a model where suggestions would also be part of the exercise along with complaints. As the Municipal Corporation of Delhi completes its first month after unification, it has kept its focus on an image makeover by appearing as a body that is more interactive, with an emphasis on cleanliness and weeding out corruption. The corporation has in the past been facing criticism over a lack of upkeep of sanitation in the city, corruption, and not being sensitive to people’s problems.
The Jan Sunwai campaign, a complaint redressal forum, was kicked off last week to resolve issues faced by citizens under which 12 zonal deputy commissioners and two in the headquarters of the MCD meet the public in their office every Monday to Friday from noon to 1 pm. It has been off to a slow start as reports of officers delegating cases to junior staff or being absent in the initial days have surfaced. Senior officials in the civic body said this was a project overseen by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.
Saxena had earlier said that additional commissioners and zonal deputy commissioners have been instructed to be in the field before the office starts to inspect and ensure work is being done, and be present in the office later to meet people for an hour to redress their problems.
A corruption complaint cell exists to deal with the complaints of corruption against municipal officials and departments. Through telephone number 011-23225231 and e-mail ID commissioner.ccc@mcd.nic.in, one can get one’s complaint registered. Launched last week, the results of the cell are yet to come out.
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On Monday, Saxena launched a joint ‘cleanliness drive’ across the city starting from North Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area. The corporation after the drive announced that it will be carrying out a special cleanliness drive in all its zones from June 11- 26.
The unified MCD formally came into existence on May 22 with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as the new civic body’s special officer and commissioner, respectively. The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 during Congress leader Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as chief minister. It has now been reunified by merging the North, South and East MCDs.
A senior official said that while the initial steps have been taken, much would depend on the execution. “The MCD’s image has been of a place where officers don’t meet, files don’t move, along with corruption in departments. These initiatives alone would not change much until it is practised effectively on a sustained basis,” he said.
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