MCD begins 3-way split, starts to count its TVs, furniture and crockery

Project files, furniture, television sets, tea cups, spoons — government officials who met Tuesday to start dividing the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) assets had quite a varied list on hand.

The consensus on how to divide project documents among the three new municipalities, into which the MCD will be split this April, was relatively easier to arrive at.

“Jurisdiction of the three agencies could clash on several projects, so, we feel it’s best to have three separate copies of all project files, and a fourth one to be stored as a back-up,” said an MCD official who attended the meeting chaired by Commissioner K S Mehra.

But the more tricky decision, as expected, turned out to be the one related to splitting assets like expensive furniture, work stations and crockery at the MCD’s hundreds of offices.

The matter of such assets, worth nearly Rs 30 crore, bought recently for the MCD’s new headquarters, Civic Centre, came up during Tuesday’s meeting, officials who attended said.

“All the 37 head of departments who sit here received one centre table, chairs and sofa for their offices when we shifted from Town Hall. Now we don’t know what to do with this,” an official said.

The verdict on dividing such assets seemed split. A few officials said the thousands of chairs and other furniture bought for the Civic Centre shouldn’t be moved out at all.

“Those who will move out will order new furniture of their choice in the buildings they move into. The furniture at the Civic Centre will then be used by Delhi government offices, which will be shifted here,” an official said.

But retaining crockery may prove difficult. Officials at the Civic Centre said they do plan to carry some of their favourite crockery wherever they go.

“There are tea sets, which were bought after many deliberations. A few of us may take that crockery with us when we move to other offices. Flatscreen computers are likely to go with us, but we are not sure whether flatscreen TVs will also be moved,” a senior official said.

Officials managed to arrive at a few specifics like division of piles of documentation related to hundreds of projects whose jurisdiction may overlap among the three municipalities.

Yogendra Maan, Director of Press and Information, said, “We have been asked to make four copies of every file. Three will go to corporations and one will be put in a centralised bank to secure the data centrally.”

Source: Indian Express