MCD election on Apr 22, Kejriwal wants EVMs out
NEARLY 1.34 CRORE VOTERS WILL DECIDE THE FATE OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES IN 272 SEATS OF THREE CIVIC BODIES IN THE CITY — NDMC, SDMC AND EDMC
Delhi will vote to elect its municipal councillors on April 22.
The state election commission (SEC) announced the election date for the national capital’s three municipal corporations on Tuesday, even as the Arvind Kejriwal government demanded that the civic polls be conducted through ballots instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
With the elections just over a month away, the model code of conduct has been invoked with immediate effect. The votes will be counted on April 25.
When asked to comment on Kejriwal’s demand, state election commissioner SK Srivastava said the SEC has already launched the process of preparing EVMs for the electoral process. “If the Delhi government wants to hold the polls through ballots, it will need to amend the relevant rules,” he added.
Srivastava said the SEC had received a note, seeking its comments on the issue. “We informed the government that it will have to amend the relevant rules to bring about such a change. We also told them that there was a lack of ballot boxes, and acquiring them would be a time-consuming process. Besides that, we will also have to get ballot papers printed,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal directed chief secretary MM Kutty to place a request for paper ballots instead of EVMs before the SEC. The Congress raised a similar demand, alleging that EVMs could be tampered to favour BJP.
The move drew criticism from the saffron party. BJP state president Manoj Tiwari said that if Kejriwal harboured doubts about the voting machines, he “should also demand re-election in 67 of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats, from where AAP won in 2015”.
This will be the first fullfledged civic election for Kejriwal’s party, which came to power in Delhi with a thumping majority the year before last.
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Come April and you won’t have to go looking for public washrooms to relieve yourself after a long day of shopping in a South Delhi market.
Just walk into the nearest restaurant, convey your need to the staff and you will be able to use the well-equipped toilet for a meagre ~5.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Tuesday issued directions to all hotels, restaurants and eateries in its jurisdiction to make their washrooms accessible to the public from April 1.
The move would allow anyone with ~5 in hand to access washrooms in even five-star hotels of South Delhi.
According to an SDMC official, the decision has been taken on the advice of lieutenant governor Anil Baijal to explore the possibility of making toilets in restaurants and hotels open to public use.
“We want the hotels and restaurants to adhere to the decision in full spirit rather than wait for the SDMC to enforce it,” said SDMC commissioner Puneet Goel.
“The hotels and restaurants will also need to put up display boards informing the public about the facilities. The managements of these restaurants have been given the discretion to charge up to ~5 per usage to cover their costs towards maintenance and cleaning,” said the corporation official.
The decision will be imposed on all the 4,618 eating outlets, including hotels, which are issued health trade licences by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
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