₹1,000-crore push to improve roads
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government has allocated a budget of ₹,000 crore to three municipal corporations to improve roads in residential neighbourhoods.
Such an announcement has been made for the first time in the Delhi’s budget, but it has come with a rider that the roads will be repaired by the government and not the local bodies.
In his budget speech, finance minister Manish Sisodia said, “We have earmarked an amount of ₹1,000 crore for improving dilapidated internal lanes. However, it is expected that the lieutenant-governor will arrange for no-objection certificates from municipal bodies so that we can implement work on these roads.”
In 2012, the Delhi government had taken over the maintenance of MCD roads over 60 feet in width. Of the 33,198 km of road stretches, the three civic bodies manage approximately 27,000 km in 95 % of residential areas.
The residents said the decision will only lead to confusion. “Though the MCD is not doing quality work, it is easy to approach them as compared to the Delhi government. I think instead of taking additional responsibility, the government should review work done by MCDS,” said MK Gupta, president of S Block, GK-I.
An amount of ₹638 crore has been allocated to local bodies to utilise for schemes in health and education sectors such as project Buniyaad that aims to improve learning skills of students.
In 2018-19, the Delhi government will provide financial support of ₹6,903 crore to local bodies, which is 13% of the total budget and 9.88% higher (₹6,286 crore) than the funds allocated in the revised estimates in 2017-18.
“In view of poor financial position of the north and east Delhi municipal corporations, we have not recovered the principal and interest amount of the outstanding loan liabilities during the year 2016-17 and 2017-18,” said Sisodia.
Leaders in the municipal corporations gave mixed reactions. “It’s good that the Delhi government has sanctioned the amount under various heads separately, but why would we allow them to work in our jurisdiction?” Preeti Aggarwal, mayor, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, said.