India: Decline in performance of Delhi councillors: NGO report

New Delhi, Oct 28 (PTI) Ahead of the civic body elections early next year, NGO Praja Foundation has ranked Delhi's sitting councillors and released a consolidated report on Thursday, claiming a decline in their overall performance.

There are 265 councillors in the North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporations.

The NGO said none of them scored Grade A.

All these three civic bodies are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the principal opposition.

The Praja Foundation has evaluated the work of the councillors on the basis of several factors such as meetings attended to discuss public matters, issues raised, quality of issues, questions raised according to residents' complaints and criminal record.

According to the report, in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, BJP councillor Ravinder Kumar was ranked first with a 77.93 per cent score.

AAP's Guddi Devi was ranked second with 77.88 per cent score followed by AAP's Ajay Kumar at No. 3 with 76.88 per cent score.

Similarly, the NGO claimed that in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Congress councillor Abhishek Dutt was ranked number one with a 79.98 per cent score.

He was followed by BJP's Nandani Sharma with 74.91 per cent score and BJP's Sanjay Thakur with 74.88 per cent.

In the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, BJP councillor Sanjay Goyal was given the first rank by the NGO with 77.05 per cent score.

Former EDMC mayor Nirmal Jain of the BJP bagged the second rank with 77.05 per cent score and another BJP councillor, Ajay Sharma, stood third with 74.33 per cent score.

The NGO in its report claimed that it has obtained data from the municipal secretaries, engineering and accounts department, Election Commission of India's website and the Delhi Police.

The consolidated report card details various reasons for this decline in the councillors' overall performance, one of which is attendance.

"It has been seen that councillors' attendance in various meetings has gradually dropped from the first year to the third year of the term. The attendance for the NDMC has declined from 78.81 per cent in FY 2017-18 to 73.38 per cent in FY 2019-20; SDMC from 79.62 per cent in FY 2017-18 to 72.37 per cent in FY 2019-20; and EDMC from 82.34 per cent in 2017-18 to 72.64 per cent in FY 2019-20," the NGO report stated.