Unified MCD Gets 5 Dept Heads, 3 Deputy Commissioners

The unified MCD formally came into existence on Sunday, with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as the new civic body's special officer and commissioner, respectively. According to senior officials, nine additional commissioners have been allocated departments and office spaces at different floors of the Civic Centre, while three deputy commissioners were also appointed.

They said the unification process started by bringing some officials of the erstwhile east corporation into its head office at the Civic Centre and also by making a single website for the three MCDs.?IAS officer Ankit Mishra was appointed as the deputy commissioner of Rohini zone, while IAS officer Prince Dhawan has been given charge of Civil Lines zone, an order later said.

DANICS officer Jitender Kumar has been made deputy commissioner (Hackney Carriage, Language, Disaster Management and Election), it added. The order also said the unified MCD will also have three engineer-in-chiefs.

While KP Singh will be the EnC for various zones, including Rohini, Narela, Keshavpuram, SP-City, Karol Bagh and Civil Lines, PC Meena was appointed EnC for central zone, south zone, west zone and Najafgarh zone, the order said. It added that Dilip Ramnani will look after the works of EnC for Shahdara (south) and Shahdara (north) zones.

"Appointment of five head of departments have been finalised and the rest will be appointed soon. The departments for which HODs have been appointed include education, law, vigilance, IT and Press and Information (P&I)," a senior official of the MCD told PTI.?An order issued by the MCD said AK Sharma will be the chief law officer of the unified MCD, Vikas Tripathi will be the MCD's director, education, while Amit Kumar has been appointed as director (P&I).

Sanjay Sahay has been appointed as director vigilance and IAS Prince Dhawan will be the new Director (IT), the order said.?Another order issued by the civic body said that nine additional commissioners have been distributed departments and given offices spaces at different floors of the Civic Centre.

The order said that IAS Shilpa Shinde will be the additional commissioner (engineering) and will also be the zonal incharge of Keshavpuram and Narela zones. IAS Sonal Swaroop will be the additional commissioner (DEMS) and zonal incharge of south zone while IAS Harleen Kaur has been appointed additional commissioner (Land and Estate) and zonal incharge of Karol Bagh Zone, the MCD order said.?

IRAS Randhir Sahay has been made additional commissioner (finance and toll tax) and will also be the zonal incharge of Najafgarh zone.?Similarly, Dr Brijesh Singh has been appointed the additional commissioner (law, public health and horticulture) and will be the incharge of Shahdara (North and South) zones, the order said.?

It added that Alka R Sharma will be the additional commissioner (education) and also look after SP-City zone. The official said appointment of Directors of Remunerative Project Cell and Advertising Departments are next in line. The unified MCD had formally came into existence on Sunday.

The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 during Congress leader Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the chief minister. It is now reunified by merging the three civic bodies - North, South and East municipal corporations. Soon after assuming charge, MCD Commissioner Bharti issued an order, saying that erstwhile SDMC's Central Establishment Department will act as the nodal department for transfer and posting of officials and staff for the unified MCD.

He also ordered that erstwhile SDMC's office of CA-cum-FA and the Accounts Department will act as the nodal finance and accounts department of the unified MCD. According to officials, the development of making the erstwhile SDMC's departments as the nodal agency for transfer posting has led to some "unhappiness" among officials of erstwhile North and East civic body staff.?

A senior MCD official said making the unified MCD financially stable will be among the key challenges. "We are examining the possible viable options for making the civic body financially strong. We are constantly holding meetings with officials to zero in on possible solutions," the official said.

The official also said the initial focus of the corporation would be on the issue of waste.?"Waste segregation is an important segment to take care of to ensure cleanliness and effective waste disposal. Clear instructions are being given that landfills has to be shortened. We will ensure that waste segregation is done at source.

"It however requires collective will. It cannot be done by just imposing things but collective campaign has to be done," the official said. MCD special officer Ashwani Kumar had on Saturday visited Ghazipur landfill site to take stock of the situation. The three civic bodies have been merged into one MCD through the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022.

The Act reduces the number of wards in the national capital to 250 from the existing 272, which means that the MCD will have to undergo a delimitation exercise before the election. The Centre will form a delimitation commission to carry out the demarcation of wards. PTI AKM ?SMN