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''.