Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has sought Home Minister P Chidambaram’s intervention to “pre-empt deliberate efforts to dilute powers of the elected representatives” before the Commonwealth Games.

Dikshit’s letter, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, takes serious umbrage of the setting up of Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering Centre) with the role of “examining traffic and transport related issues”. The centre comes under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and was set up by Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna.

Official sources in the Home Ministry have confirmed to The Indian Express that the issues raised by Dikshit are currently under examination. These include a request to bifurcate the Delhi Police with a separate security wing under the Centre and a dedicated traffic wing under the elected government.

Given the sensitivity of the subject, the Home Ministry has sought clarifications from the government.

The CM’s letter says: “This Centre consists of the same people who were already there in the technical committee of the DDA. This is another attempt at removing an important function of the Delhi government from its purview and has further delayed approval to important projects, because not only is the approval required from the DDA technical committee and the DUAC (Delhi Urban Arts Commission), but now one more centre has to be approached to clear transport projects.”

Agreeing that the security of the city was under the purview of the Home Ministry, Dikshit has raised concerns over issues pertaining to traffic management and day-to-day policing. “Traffic management is directly related to the overall urban infrastructural planning for roads, bridges and highways, but we are unable to seek full cooperation from the police in managing the ever increasing traffic problem of Delhi,” says the letter.

Dikshit has given a specific example of the experiment with the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) to point out “non-cooperation from Delhi Police”. “...the traffic police refused to have anything to do with it (BRTS) and did not cooperate in managing the traffic signalling system... My government had to face a lot of flak and we have been doing our best to ensure proper engineering design for the corridor,” the CM says in the letter.

Stating that all roads in the city are clogged due to the presence of hawkers and unauthorised parking on arterial roads, Dikshit has told the minister that the traffic police have been unable to manage this problem on the pretext that it was the job of the MCD or the PWD.

“Even when I point out traffic violations, these are not attended to with great seriousness,” the letter adds.

The CM suggests that the Delhi Police need to be reorganised as a trained and dedicated traffic police. “Those responsible for managing traffic need a more professional approach rather than a temporary posting and they need to be fully aware of each and every aspect of traffic management, which requires a long-term commitment,” she says.