Officials to be fined for not erecting boards carrying work details

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials who have failed to erect boards carrying details of development works carried out through councillors’ local area development (LAD) fund are all set to be penalised. Nivedita Khandekar reports.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials who have failed to erect boards carrying details of development works carried out through councillors’ local area development (LAD) fund are all set to be penalised.

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Starting next week, the Central Information Commission (CIC) will send teams to carry out an inspection of such boards erected by the civic body in more than 50 wards and issue notices to officials found guilty.

A public hearing held last week had revealed that at several places councillors’ funds were spent on ornamental works such as fancy lights or works that are not on the priority list of people living in the ward.

Highlighting how information through such boards will bring in more transparency on how and on what funds are spent, Anjali Bhardwaj and 137 others from Satark Nagarik Sangathan (SNS) had lodged a complaint with information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi last year. He had directed the MCD to erect such boards with detailed information in Hindi in all wards as a suo moto declaration under Section 4 of the Right to Information Act.

The directives for inspection came after many people lodged complaints with Gandhi about following the public hearing, which brought forth the issue of either missing boards or those carrying inadequate information about works carried out under councillor’s LAD funds.

Bhardwaj and others lodged complaints about 54 wards after the hearing at Gandhi's office. “While a few of these 54 are missing altogether, those found are highly inadequate when it comes to furnishing proper information,” said Bhardwaj.

“I will send a government officer and representatives from the complainants to carry out inspection next week. If the boards are missing or not found in order, the MCD officials concerned would be issued notices immediately,” said Gandhi.