No time for work, they’re on election duty

Ahead of the Assembly elections politicians make tall claims about carrying out developmental work in their areas. But the fact is till the elections are over no development work would take place in the city, reports Neelam Pandey. See full coverage.

Ahead of the Assembly elections politicians make tall claims about carrying out developmental work in their areas. But the fact is till the elections are over no development work would take place in the city.

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Almost all junior engineers (JE) of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are busy setting up poll booths, while the councillors are campaigning for their political parties. MCD officials admitted that things in the civic agency have more or less come to a standstill.

With the code of conduct in place, no new tenders can be floated and those projects for which tenders have already been floated cannot begin till the polls are over.

“The junior engineers are quite busy with election duties as each of them is responsible for polling booths in their areas. They will have to ensure that the venue is in a decent condition and proper barricading has been done,” said a senior MCD official.

According to officials, work like laying sewer lines, drains, roads and other work related to expenditure of the MLA or councillor fund is on hold due to the elections. And the civic agency is already running months behind most of its projects.

Municipal councillors also have no time for anything else other than campaigning for their parties. In fact, leader of opposition JK Sharma had said he might not be able to make it to the Children’s Day function on Friday, as he was busy with campaigning.