The Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday cleared more than 58 policy matters that had remained pending since March, in a marathon meeting lasting over four hours after the key panel was reconstituted.
The panel also announced that is has decided to approach the Delhi government for land to set up new gaushalas, citing pressure on the four existing facilities, which officials said were operating beyond capacity.
Standing Committee chairperson Satya Sharma said several proposals had been pending for four to five months and that the panel had cleared matters involving public interest. “We also took note of illegal play schools being operated in Delhi and directed the concerned officials to identify such institutions and take action as per rules, while ensuring strict compliance with safety standards concerning children,” Sharma said.
MCD commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar said new waste collection agencies for the South, West and Central zones would be fully operational by October 31, while existing contracts in the North and North-West zones were being reviewed. The panel also approved a proposal to convert 48 rural villages into urban villages, paving the way for greater development activity and bringing them fully under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (DMC Act). Another proposal approved the replacement of streetlights in six of MCD’s 12 zones, covering North and Outer Delhi. The six zones have around 312,000 streetlights, with LED lights installed between 2012 and 2022.
Because the posts of chairperson and deputy chairperson remained vacant after the previous tenure ended, resulting in a substantial backlog of policy proposals, to be sure, the MCD’s powerful Standing Committee had not met since March. Because of the ongoing geopolitical crisis in West Asia, he added that deployment of mechanical road sweepers would begin by November, with some new battery-operated machines being airlifted(as opposed to being shipped by sea).
