The Hindu 08.12.2011
8 Councillors suspended after sting operation
With a sting operation on a television channel exposing
rampant corruption among Councillors of the Municipal Corporation of
Delhi just ahead of the civic body polls, the State party units of both
the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party went on a damage control
mode on Wednesday and suspended their respective members who were shown
falling for the bait. Among those suspended is former Delhi Mayor
Jaishree Panwar of the Congress.
Incidentally, of the
eight councillors suspended by the two parties, five are women. This
has also raised a lot of concern about the future of the corporation as
only recently the Delhi Cabinet and then the Delhi Assembly have
approved a proposal for 50 per cent reservation for women in this civic
body.
While the Congress suspended two of its councillors, the ruling BJP suspended all six who had been shown in the sting operation.
Delhi
Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president J.P. Agarwal was quick to
respond to the situation and suspended Jaishree Panwar from the Shahpur
Jat ward and Beena Dhakolia from the Ambedkar Nagar ward from the
Congress party. Incidentally, Ms. Panwar is former Delhi Mayor, a
four-time councillor and daughter-in-law of former Delhi MP Dalip Singh.
The
BJP had to deal with even greater ignominy as the number of its
councillors caught on camera was much larger. But that did not deter
Delhi unit president Vijender Gupta from suspending all the six
councillors and seeking explanations from them within three days.
The
BJP councillors who have been suspended area Satyashwari Joshi, Anita
Koli, Ravi Prakash Sharma, Subhash Jain, Ajit Tokas and Manju Gupta.
Mr.
Gupta later said “the BJP’s policy is of zero tolerance against
corruption and if any concrete proof of corruption against any
office-bearer is found that person will not be spared”.
