Netas Swamping MCD With Road Renaming Pleas

How Delhi’s Local Politicians Put Pressure on Civic Body to Rename Streets — Often After Their Own Deceased Relatives.

- Ankit Yadav

WHAT’S in a name? Well, everything – if you ask the Capital’s municipal leaders, councillors and MLAs who have unleashed a barrage of renaming requests this year.

On an average, according to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) figures, the Capital’s three civic bodies receive about 300 requests every year for renaming roads, parks or community centres from local leaders and satraps. But in 2019, the number has already crossed 449.

As things stand, South MCD has received 181 such recommendations, of which 140 have been approved. The North MCD has already got 94 recommendations this year and the number of name-change requests with the East MCD stood at 174, out of which 106 have got the nod of the ‘naming committee’.

Most such recommendations come from municipal leaders who want to bask in reflected glory by associating the name of a family member with a road or a park. Consider this: Last year, North MCD Mayor Adesh Gupta named a road after his grandfather Puran Chandra Yogi. Earlier, a road in Karol Bagh was named after former MCD councillor Madanlal Kapoor. Two roads were named respectively as Shankarlal Marg and Rati Devi Marg in Sultanpur, after the father and mother of former Congress MLA Jai Kishan.

A road was named after former MLA Bhai Bharat Singh of the Indian National Lok Dal in Najafgarh and a road in Timarpur was renamed Chaudhary Surender Singh Marg, after the father-in-law of former municipal councillor Sunita Chowdhary. “You do not rename roads or parks just because you are related to certain people. People who have contributed to the society deserve a landmark in their name. All the roads or parks that have been named during my tenure were after people who served the society well,” says Adesh Gupta in his defence.