Argument continues
The stand-off between the BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit saw an interesting week of action at the civic body’s weekly meetings, which were usually called off mid-way or disrupted by sloganeering by BJP and Congress councillors. The Standing Committee meeting left the House in splits as members of the Committee at one point simply kept shouting slogans deviating from the agenda. Allegation and counter allegations dominated. While Congress councillors defended the CM, BJP councillors jeered at the poor performance of civic bodies like the Delhi Jal Board. A councillor even commented: “CM ko aaj kal zyada bhook lagti hai kya? Unhe MCD bhi chahiye aur Delhi Police bhi. Jo hai usko toh pehle sambhale.” (Is the Chief Minister feeling too hungry? Now she wants both MCD and the Delhi Police. She should manage what she has first.) 

Missing the target
It seems the summer camps, launched with much fanfare, aren’t such a hit after all. Initiated in the city by the MCD to bring out-of-school children into the folds of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), by first training them and then mainstreaming them into regular institutions, the project so far has been able to get only a few thousand children as against the target of 10,000. While officials put the statistics at “more than 3,000”, some agree wasn’t so effective after all. MCD claims the parents are tough to convince because they’d rather have their children earn and also, they might not know that primary education is free in government-run institutions. The SSA officials,however, feel the project could have been advertised better.