SDMC asks officers not to meet govt officials between 2 pm & 6 pm

In a direct confrontation between the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government and the BJP-ruled South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), the latter on Thursday exhorted its officers not to pay visits to government departments and attend meetings called either by these departments or members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly in the afternoon. 

The Corporation, which claimed indecent behaviour with its officers, said that instead of paying visits to other agencies, the officers will facilitate works related to the Corporation.

“The SDMC House asks that the senior officers of the Corporation should not be invited in the meetings outside the Corporation between 2 pm and 6 pm. It orders officers to remain present in their offices in the afternoon so that the issues of the Councillors could be resolved then and there. 

The Councillors have been contacting local residents in the forenoon hence they turn up at the Corporation HQ in the afternoon. Hence, it is necessary that the senior officers must remain present in their offices,” said Shailender Singh Monti, Standing Committee Chairman of the SDMC.

The House meeting unanimously condemned the indecent behavior meted out to the senior officers of the Corporation in the meeting of a Committee of Legislative Assembly Delhi. It stated that the officers are being forced to wait for longer durations and are being asked questions repeatedly on the same issues by presenting different formats of questionnaires.

Supporting the resolution, the Leader of Opposition Farhad Suri stated that confrontation should not be encouraged. “We are keen that the officers are given due respect and the proceedings of the Committee should be conducted as per rules,” said Suri.

Notably, the furore was created last week when the ‘Questions and Reference Committee’ of the Delhi Assembly had summoned the SDMC commissioner twice after Saurabh Bhardwaj, an AAP MLA, had claimed that the civic body had “lied” to a question over MLALAD funds.