DPCC set up screening committees to scan for clean candidates

New Delhi, Mar 7 (UNI) In order to field candidates with good and clean image in the coming Delhi Municipal Corporation elections, Congress in Delhi will select candidates through 'screening committees' that will have cadre representatives from the block and district levels.

The committees would comprise Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President, area MP and MLA, party's Block and District Presidents, chiefs of Youth Congress, National Students Union of India, Congress Sewa Dal and Mahila Congress, and a PCC observer, DPCC President Ram Babu Sharma told UNI.

Such committees would scrutinise candidates in each of the 272 MCD wards and select one by mutual consensus or come out with a panel of three candidates that would be forwarded to the party's State Election Committee for finalisation, he added.

''For the first time ever such an effort is being implemented with an aim to only field candidates with good and honest image through a transparent process that involved the party's cadre right from the grassroot.'' The new system had been devised in consultation with All India Congress Committee General Secretary In-Charge of Delhi affairs Ashok Gehlot, who said all ticket seekers and prospective candidates were being requested not to contact AICC in the connection as the show would be run by DPCC.

Block and district level officials had also been advised to actively participate in the process to ensure that good candidates were selected, he said.

In case any such official did not agree with the choice of candidate made by the committee, he or she could directly write to him, he added.

''We are determined to go to the people with only genuine, honest and hardworking candidates and offer a corruption-free Corporation,'' Mr Gehlot said.

The DPCC chief added that the party would remove the confusion created by the BJP in the minds of some people regarding Congress' role in demolition of illegal constructions and sealing of commercial establishments in residential areas.

While demolition and sealing was carried out on Court's orders, the Congress provided relief in the shape of Delhi Master Plan 2021 and regularisation of unauthorised colonies, he said.

The party was also working to alleviate people's grievances about supply of water and electricity in the city.

UNI