‘ MLAs, councillors didn’t raise civic issues adequately’

Notwithstanding a range of civic issues, including sewerage problems and water woes affecting the national capital, city legislators and councillors did not raise the issues in the Assembly and civic bodies adequately, an NGO has claimed.

According to a white paper released by Praja Foundation at a press conference here today, “as many as 1,65,735 complaints were raised by Delhi citizens related to water supply and 73,088 related to sewerage issues in 2017”.

However, only “59 waterrelated issues” were raised by MLAs in the Delhi Assembly last year, claims the paper titled — Report on civic issues registered by citizens and deliberations by municipal councillors in ward committees and the MLAs in the Assembly sessions. Councillors raised issues related to water only “29 times” from April- December 2017, it said.

“This is not the kind of response one would expect to an official Right to Information ( RTI) application seeking basic information such as the number of complaints registered in an official complaint mechanism of a State- run body in India. The carelessness in handling citizens’ issues is disheartening,” Nitai Mehta, founder and managing trustee of Praja Foundation, said.

Other issues such as pollution, fire in houses and buildings, storm water drainage problems, nuisance from stray dogs and monkeys, were also raised by citizens but these did not get reflected in the quantum of issues raised by MLAs and municipal councillors, including in 2015 and 2016, the NGO alleged.