‘Odd-Even’ governance stings Delhi
Straddling between one crisis to another is now the fate of the people of Delhi. Flooding a few months ago bared the governance anarchy as one arm of the city administration led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and another by lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena turned the national capital into a political theatre to score brownie points.
Anti-smog spraying being done in parts of Delhi
By Manish Anand
Anti-smog guns mounted on trucks run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are now seen in the Outer Ring Road to give a respite to the commuters. Elsewhere, the people rushed to the hospitals with complaints of breathlessness. Schools are shut. The people coughing all around in the city is a new norm.
Major parts of the news bulletins of the All India Radio yesterday amplified that the air quality index in major areas of the national capital was in excess of 500, which is considered to be most severe and hazardous. Doctors reached out by the AIR claimed that 30-40 patients are coming to each hospital with distress attributed to the pollution level in the national capital.
By afternoon, as anticipated, Delhi government announced Odd-Even scheme to ration the access to roads for the vehicles. The announcement, a knee-jerk reaction, briefly distracted the people’s attention from itching and irritation in their eyes with throats equally in most pitiable conditions.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai has officially accused the head of the pollution body in the city for not opening the anti-smog tower. The bureaucratic set up in Delhi claims that the smog tower efficacy needed to be examined. Clearly, the elected political leadership in Delhi was caught with pants down while bureaucracy has eroded the efficacy of the city government addressing the woes of the people.
Ever since parliament passed the bill to amend the Delhi Services Act, the loud talk in the corridors of power in the secretariat of the city government is of a total breakdown of the working relations between the elected political leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party and the bureaucracy headed by Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar.
The officials are being heard to be openly defying the directions of the ministers by citing the rule book. They are also being heard of not attending meetings called by ministers. Also, the officials are being heard of snubbing the ministers for giving directions which don’t abide by the conventional bureaucratic wisdom. In nutshell, the Delhi government is now lame duck after the enactment of the amendments to the Delhi Services Act.
Straddling between one crisis to another is now the fate of the people of Delhi. Flooding a few months ago bared the governance anarchy as one arm of the city administration led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and another by lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena turned the national capital into a political theatre to score brownie points. One wants to be a perennial victim, while another is high on projecting himself as messiah of the people in Delhi.
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