Civic bodies pass censure motion against AAP govt

NEW DELHI: The north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations moved a censure motion against the government for the slow pace of funds being released under the ‘plan’ head, at a special house meeting on Thursday.

With a week left for the presentation of their annual budgets, the three civic agencies say they are finding it hard to allocate funds since the Delhi government has not released sufficient money under plan head, said MCD officials who asked not to be named.

The “plan expenditure” is a dedicated fund allocated for development works in specific sectors, while “non-plan expenditure” is the fund from MCD’S internal sources of income and taxes (shared by Delhi government) for running costs.

Tilak Raj Kataria, North corporation’s leader of the house, said, “We plan our budget on the basis of funds from Delhi government received the previous year. But this year, only ₹100 crore in health and education sector has been released to date and nothing in urban development and transport sector. In comparison, we received ₹800 crore in five sectors last year.”

Kataria appealed to the Union government to withdraw the amendments in the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957 (Section 66) prior to trifurcation, thereby ending the state government’s interference in transfer of funds.

Anil Lakra, leader of the Opposition and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor, said the civic agency has done nothing to increase its revenue in the past 10 years. “There are projects, which are pending for more than five years, when AAP was not in power. We had suggested them several methods for increasing revenue from property tax, advertisements and contractors but nothing has been implemented.”

North corporation officials said that the shrinking sources of revenue and increasing expenses have not just increased the deficit but halted work on various projects, which were undertaken from the funds released by the state government.

SDMC leader of the house Kamaljeet Sehrawat said if the situation prevails, the south body will also start showing budgetary deficit like its east and north counterparts.

The east corporation demanded the release of ₹10,228 crore as recommended by Fourth Delhi Finance Commission.

LEADER OF OPPOSITION AND AAP COUNCILLOR SAYS CIVIC AGENCIES HAVE DONE NOTHING IN THE PAST 10 YEARS TO INCREASE REVENUES