MCD reiterates prohibition regarding recording videos and photos of proceedings after House chaos

While these guidelines aren’t new, they have reportedly been violated multiple times in meetings of the civic body.

Days after chaos unfolded at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) house meeting, the civic body has reiterated that video recording and photography of the standing committee proceedings scheduled for October 30 are prohibited.

Last week, the civic body’s House meeting witnessed heated exchanges over almost every issue. (HT Photo)

“Live streaming of the proceedings on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter is not allowed during the meeting. Video recording and still photography of the proceedings are not permitted,” the civic body stated in a media invite.

While these guidelines aren’t new, they have reportedly been violated multiple times in meetings of the civic body.

What happened last week

Last week, the civic body’s House meeting witnessed heated exchanges over almost every issue, including ward-wise budgetary allocations, pollution preparedness, the Yamuna clean-up, and the city’s mounting garbage crisis.

The meeting descended into chaos, with attempts to snatch the microphone from the Mayor and papers being thrown around. Images and videos of the disorder soon flooded social media platforms.

The meeting started at 2:30pm and one of the first points of confrontation concerned the allocation of funds to individual ward councillors. This triggered a verbal spat between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members.

While 23 agenda items were passed without deliberation, Mayor Pravesh Wahi had directed the MCD’s disciplinary committee to initiate action against the members involved in the disruption.

Amongst the list of agendas passed were reclaiming land on the Okhla and Bhalswa dumpsites by processing legacy waste through bio-remediation and bio-mining, along with the development of waste-processing facilities with minimum capacities of 1,800 tonnes per day (TPD) at Bhalswa, 700 TPD at Shingola, 1,400 TPD at Okhla and 1,200 TPD at Narela-Bawana landfill sites.