Dengue, dogs and garbage dumps kept MCD in news in 2015

An unprecedented outbreak of dengue that saw a record number of cases since 1996, menace of stray dogs and cases of garbage pile-up up in the city triggered by strike by sanitation workers kept the civic bodies on their toes and in the news in 2015.
The national capital was stung by the deadly vector-borne disease in the year, reporting over 15,500 cases till mid- November and claiming over 40 lives, prompting both Delhi government and civic bodies to ramp up the health infrastructure and go into fumigation overdrive.
The city had last seen such a humongous case in 1996, reporting 10,253 cases and 423 deaths. The nearly 20-year-old record was surpassed in mid-October only with over 12,500 cases and 32 fatalities officially recorded. Among all months, October posted the highest number of cases at 7,283.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) reported maximum number of cases among all the three civic bodies -- 3,148, with Najafgarh Zone posting 972 cases, while the east corporation saw the lowest at 1,737. Under the north corporation at least 2,903 people were reported down with the vector-borne fever.
The deadly outbreak, besides causing panic among people also triggered a blame game between the BJP-ruled MCD and the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP dispensation, even as both municipal and city government hospitals struggled to accommodate groaning number of patients.
But it wasn't just the dengue sting that kept the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in news, alarming number of cases of dog bites, and failure in conducting the canine census for the last six years also pinched it hard this year.

The erstwhile MCD was trifurcated in 2012 into north, south and east corporations or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC, and for last seven to eight years it has been ruled by the BJP.

The last count of street dogs was done in 2009 for the then unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) which had pegged their population at around 5.62 lakh.
On August 4, a seven-year-old boy was attacked by a pack of street dogs in Jamia Nagar area in south Delhi, bringing into spotlight the issue of street dog menace and safety of citizens in the streets, prompting both the Delhi High Court and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) taking cognisance of the issue and seeking reports on the matter.

"From April 2012 to March 2015, SDMC has sterilised 47,140 streets dogs, which is nearly thrice the corresponding numbers for North and East Corporations," a senior SDMC official had earlier said.
Besides, the streets of the national capital also hogged
the headlines this passing year for heaps of garbage strewn on them, especially in north and east Delhi.
Sanitation employees in both NDMC and EDMC went on intermittent strikes for several months, paralysing cleanliness work in the city and causing huge inconvenience to residents and commuters alike.
The sanitiation worker-MCD crisis eventually prompted Arvind Kejriwal-led dispensation to intervene and offer a helping hand to aggrieved employees, who had been demanding payment of their arrears and salaries, besides other benefits like issuing of smart cards, etc.

For days, garbage dumps lay on streets of Laxmi Nagar, Patpargaj, Mayur Vihar and other parts of Delhi, raising literally a stink on TV channels and the newspapers the next day.
And, these incidents occurred, notwithstanding the three municipal bodies having allocated a major sum in their budget in 2014-15 fiscal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.
Ironically, despite the civic bodies spending crores of rupees on sanitation activities, Delhi fared poor in the 'Clean India' assessment, ranking among the last few in the list, topped by Mysuru.
Also, both NDMC and EDMC, being cash-strapped have sought to mobilise more funds in the fiscal 2016-2017, and SDMC too have aimed at augmenting their revenues, all three having presented their budget by the end of the year.

NDMC, besides upgrading parking infrastructure and successfully implementing the new cluster advertisement policy, has also pledged to focus on Swachh Bharat next year. All three corporations have proposed a minor hike in the property tax while SDMC and EDMC both have also suggested a new professional tax.
Thus the year 2015 in a way saw the corporations running into rough weather. And from dengue stings to dog bites and garbage dump sights, it was definitely a forgettable year for the MCD, but an unforgettable one for Delhi residents.