North Delhi Mayors meet Arvind Kejriwal, seek release of civic funds

Arvind Kejriwal

The mayors of the three BJP-led civic bodies yesterday met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, seeking release of municipal funds "due to them" from the government as per the recommendations of the third and fourth Delhi Finance Commissions. North Delhi Mayor Adesh Gupta, South Delhi Mayor Narender Chawla and East Delhi Mayor Bipin Bihari Singh were accompanied by respective heads of standing committees and leaders of the three municipal houses.

"We met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his office to apprise him of the financial crisis being faced by the three corporations, which is badly affecting smooth functioning. He listened to our woes and sought 7-10 days time to discuss the matter with officials," Gupta said. He was speaking at a joint press conference addressed by the three mayors at the Civic Centre here.

During interaction with reporters, he also stressed on the need for immediate release of the "pending plan funds" and the amount "due as per the recommendations of the third and fourth Delhi Finance Commissions" to enable corporations to take up delayed developmental projects and concentrate on the core work related to sanitation, health, urban development and education. Gupta, joined by Chawla and Singh, claimed that the amount as per the recommendations of two finance commissions has "not been released". He said the liability of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation with respect to monthly salary and pension comes to Rs 295 cr. "As the funds are not being released by the Delhi government, the NDMC has not been able to release salary to its employees regularly.

Further, the delay in disbursement of salary to sanitation employees, is making the routine sanitation work of the city difficult," Gupta said. He also demanded an allocation of Rs 1,202 cr, under urban development and transport sector to carry out conservancy, sanitation and other related works. Gupta alleged that the Delhi government was "yet to release Rs 1,431 cr" as per the recommendations of the Delhi Finance Commission. Chawla said the south corporation is being "denied" the due amount under urban development, transport, education and health sectors for the last several years.

"Only an amount of Rs 137.60 cr has been released till the first quarter of 2018-19 against an annual budget proposal of Rs 1,579.19 cr. Moreover, not even a single rupee has been released or even allotted under urban development and transport sectors," he said. The SDMC demanded an allocation of minimum Rs 505 cr for 2018-19 for sanitation work, facilities in JJ colonies, community centres and development of roads. EDMC's Singh said that allocation under the urban development sector has "not been made for the year 2018-19".

"There is a dire need of Rs 124 cr for clearing the backlog of gratuity and commutation claims till March 2018," he said. "The EDMC must be released an amount of Rs 1,005 cr due to it as per the recommendations of the finance commissions," Singh said. Gupta expressed hope that that the Delhi government will soon release the funds due to all the three corporations.

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