'Third group' for specail session

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 15.

Charting out an independent course, three Congress(I) MLAs of the newly-formed ``third group'' today asked the Chief Minister, Ms. Sheila Dikshit, to convene a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party and also summon a special session of the Vidhan Sabha to discuss the Virendra Prakash Committee report on the breaking up of MCD.

Addressing a joint press conference here, , Mr. Arvinder Singh Lovely, Mr. Bhisham Sharma and Mr. Brakhm Pal, MLAs from East Delhi, said they had written to the Chief Minister listing their demands. It was important that an Assembly session should also be convened at the earliest to discuss the report in detail.

Mr. Lovely said it was important that a CLP was convened, as it would provide an opportunity to the MLAs to express their point of view. He said it was the need of the hour to break MCD as the present set-up had proved a total disaster. ``As such the Congress(I) is in favour of breaking up the MCD and there should be no delay. It would also expose the BJP which has been maintaining a dithering stand on the issue,'' he added.

The Gandhi Nagar MLA said the CLP could decide on the issue of convening a special Assembly session. This would provide an opportunity to the Delhi Government to frame the necessary legislation and put it up before the House for a discussion. It could then be sent to the Centre for further action. This would also expose the double standards of the BJP.

He charged the Leader of the Opposition, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi, with changing stands and telling lies on various occasions. In fact, it was Prof. Mukhi who had recently talked about initiation of power reforms but now he was backing out. He said the MCD should be broken into four to five bodies with a separate body for the trans-Yamuna area. ``Under the present MCD structure, growing problems of Delhi cannot be solved and some other alternative needs to be worked out. Ms. Dikshit is also of this view and the sooner it is implemented the better it is for the people of Delhi,'' he argued.

Stating that the ``third group'' was committed to progress, development and would always talk about issues affecting the people, Ghonda MLA, Mr. Bhisham Sharma, said the MCD was created in 1957 when the population of the Capital was 20 lakhs. Now it is touching 1.40 crore and it was high time decentralisation was carried out.

Mr. Sharma feared the BJP-led Centre would try to delay the MCD polls, scheduled for early next year, as it feared it would be wiped out. He accused the BJP of opposing the break-up of MCD at the behest of certain vested interests. The BJP, he said, had no reason to complain as it had failed to present its case before the Virendra Prakash Committee despite being invited. ``The report clearly indicates that a senior leader of the BJP had appeared before the committee and supported the break up of the MCD. But he had pleaded that he should not be named," he added.

All the services have deteriorated under the present MCD set up and the infrastructure and civic amenities have collapsed. There is a strong case for its break-up and fresh elections, Mr. Lovely and Mr. Sharma added.

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