With weeks to go for the MCD elections, the BJP is hard pressed to sell its achievements in Delhi Municipal corporations. It has dominated the Delhi Municipalities for ten years now and Delhites do not look very convinced about its achievements in general. Even the promises made in its manifesto have largely remained unfulfilled. It made 44 promises in its manifesto but fulfilled only six while the rest have either remained unfulfilled or work is in progress. 28 promises are unfulfilled.
Let’s have a look at the hits and misses of MCD
When it comes to modernizing the governance the BJP has delivered to some extent. It now provides information on services and deadlines online and more services have been added to the citizen’s charter with fixed time frames.
It also facilitated governance by creating a single window for factor, shop and establishment licenses and made arrangements for online applications for licensing that has helped the Citizens. It had promised to set up Mayor-in-council to empower the public but nothing happened on this front.
The BJP MCD also simplified building by-laws and have made the process of applying for sanctions online. The MCD also made the property tax payment through the internet in order to bring all properties under the tax net. It has been a partial success as only 40% properties are covered.
It had also promised a door-to-door garbage collection and waste segregation across the city but that is not happening barring few localities in Delhi. The city’s sanitation is in a mess and the endemic diseases spread every monsoon as it fails to control the mosquito breeding. The work of providing clean toilets at busy public places is also going at snail’s pace and a lot of work is yet to be done on this front as well. Apart from this nothing has been done to reclaim the three landfill sites as was stated in its manifesto. The sites of Bhalswa and Okhla are yet to take off.
However, the MCD has set up waste-to-energy plants and composting facilities and construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling plants in Delhi. Delhi has, in fact, two such plants and three waste-to-energy plants.
MCD also set up Herbal parks but only a few such parks have come up. It also started AYUSH dispensaries. It also re-laid the coal-tar roads with ready-mix concrete (RMC). It has an ambitious plan to convert all such roads to ready-mix concrete (RMC).
The MCD also set out to cover the Subhash Nagar drain to ease the traffic, however, it is still not complete but 90% of work is complete.
The MCD also started work of development of ‘Chhath ghats’ and construction of changing rooms. It has been completed and is functional.
MCD also made and executed plans to do away with the unmanned railway crossings and has constructed railway over bridges (ROBs) and railway under bridges (RUBs).
So as is evident the BJP has performed on some fronts but failed on the others. It has done well to facilitate the people’s interaction with the government but when it comes to providing the civic facilities, much need to be done though some headway has been made in some cases. The state of health and education facilities are in dire need of a revamp and so is the infrastructure of the city that is crumbling with every single day.
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