Delhi

Report: Mosquito menace not raised by councilors

Madhupriti Mitra

A multitude of civic issues, like mosquito menace and water woes, plague the national Capital, but these do not get reflected in the issues raised by the municipal councillors. 

According to a report released by Praja Foundation, between April last year and March, the three municipal bodies in Delhi received around 10, 286 complaints on mosquitoes, but it figured only 372 times among the total of around 18,000 issues raised.

Also, eight councillors have gone without raising a single issue in the relevant fora of the three municipal bodies, all ruled by the BJP, the report card on their performance has observed. Male and female councillors scored 56.85 per cent and 54.87 per cent respectively on average in the report.

At least 20, 239 complaints were made on nuisance caused by stray animals, but the issue has been raised only 372 times.

Nitai Mehta, founding trustee, Praja Foundation, said  when they look at the data of issues raised by the councillors and compare them with the relevance to people's issues and complaints they find a huge disconnect.

In terms of issues raised compared to citizen's complaints, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South DMC and East DMC councillors scored 35.2, 31.6 and 31.1 per cent respectively. MCD's internal functioning and human resources related issues were raised 2,054 and 1,692 times, respectively, making those among the top issues raised by the councillors. Education, water supply issues figured 1,159 and a mere 116 times respectively.