Sheila wants to control traffic

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said the Capital should get its own separate traffic management body and it should report to the Delhi government, reports Anuradha Mukherjee.

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said the Capital should get its own separate traffic management body and it should report to the Delhi government.

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The CM wants to take over the chaotic traffic situation in the city and try and discipline it. This is apart from bringing civic agencies like the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) under the Delhi government’s wing.

“Traffic snarls are a very big problem in Delhi. The Delhi government should have a role in traffic management in the city. Delhi will have Commonwealth Games soon. There is a need to reign in the chaotic traffic,” Dikshit told mediapersons.

Government officials said the CM was keen to set up a wing parallel to the transport department for planning and controlling traffic in the city.

“This basically means that the government wants to take over the traffic control mechanism in the city that is with the traffic police at present,” said a source, requesting anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

In fact, Dikshit had conveyed this proposal to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in a meeting last week.

Dikshit was also pushing the case for bringing the municipal bodies under the Delhi government among other special powers. Municipalities in all states are under the state government. “In Delhi, we have no say in the functioning of MCD and DDA. We have two MLAs representing Delhi government in the DDA. We keep a tab on the finances for the MCD, but once the money is paid to them, the government has no control over how the agency spends it," said Dikshit.

The Congress election manifesto also spoke of multiplicity of authorities as a hurdle in the path of smooth delivery of services to Delhiites.

Dikshit had told Ht then that though full statehood could not be demanded given Delhi’s special status as the national capital, certain vital changes could be forged to ensure that residents were not made to run from pillar to post.