Citizens' group releases list of demands for MCD polls

Ward-level waste management, pollution monitoring, increasing green cover and ending encroachments are some of the key demands listed by the United Residents' Joint Action (URJA) for the civic body elections in Delhi.

The 250-ward Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) goes to polls on December 4 while the results will be declared on December 7.

Mentioning some of the ''demands'', URJA members said the MCD should publish a roadmap in the first 100 days to achieve citizen demands over the next five years with measurable, time-bound and ward-specific goals.

''The MCD must publish regular reports on progress of the roadmap, budget allocated and expenditure and conduct a publicly-available performance audit by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India),'' URJA chief Atul Goyal said. Goyal added that the MCD must engage in local area planning at the ward level and coordinate with residents' welfare associations under a Public-Private Partnership model to constitute a well-resourced Residents' Ward Committee within three-to-six months to increase transparency, accountability, citizen participation and optimum utilisation of funds.

''The governments only engage in blame game and the citizens suffer. We don't want an MCD that is not people-centric. There's a need to come up with local-level as well as ward-level planning,'' he said. The demands listed by URJA also include zero-tolerance on encroachment of public land, walkways and illegal constructions, sanitation and waste management and decongestion of roads. It also wants a blueprint to be declared by each municipal department on its respective targets, budget provisions and phase-wise execution to accomplish the goals of sustainable and progressive development.

''Some other demands are implementation of measures to make Delhi dust free, increase in the city's forest cover, which has been static at 21 per cent since 2015, and rejuvenate all water bodies and wetlands. All municipal services passed on to the state should be professionally represented by the MCD,'' URJA said in its list of demands.