Government demands Rs 2,000 crore for MCDs

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday presented recommendations of the city government for the Union Budget at a pre-budget consultation with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and demanded at least Rs 2,000 crore as grant for the capital’s civic bodies.

“Delhi should get at least Rs 2,000 crore as basic and performance grants for local bodies, similar to that of neighbouring states. This will facilitate in tiding over the financial crisis in the East and North municipal corporations,” Mr Sisodia said, who is also Delhi’s finance minister.

Highlighting the peculiar problems faced by the capital, Mr Sisodia said the city government, in active collaboration with the citizens, conducted the odd even vehicle restriction scheme for the first time in the country in an effort to control air pollution. He said that to augment public transport in Delhi, a special package of Rs 4,000 crore from the Central government was required to purchase 5,000 additional buses, which will encourage citizens to shift to public transport.

Mr Sisodia said Delhi was being deprived of resources required for investment.

“Land is a valuable resource which we don’t have. We don’t have a share in Central taxes. Our tax base is narrow because 87.5 per cent of the gross state domestic product is from services,” he said.

He also demanded that Delhi be treated at par with other states for share in Central taxes, which has remained stagnant at Rs 325 crore since 2001-02. This will enable the city to get at least Rs 5,000 crore per annum, he said.

He said excise duty on diesel vehicles may be incr-eased because of the adverse effect on air pollution.

Delhi sanitation workers refuse to end protest Requesting the workers to resume their duties, the municipal authorities on Saturday warned the stri-king workers to resume duty with “immediate effect” or face action as piles of garbage mounted and services at hospitals and MCD schools continued to be affected. In its orders, the commissioners of East and North municipal corporations, directed all their employees to resume their duty with immediate effect.

However, the sanitation workers unions refused to end their stir and sought a “permanent solution” for their grievances from the court, even as municipal authorities claimed that other employees of the civic bodies have called off the strike.

NDMC commissioner PK Gupta also warned that names of those who do not resume duty will be forwarded to the High Court for creating “nuisance” and accordingly for fixation of civil and criminal liability.

Following the warning, the Municipal Doctor’s Association withdrew their strike late on Friday night, while the engineers and teachers withdrew on Saturday afternoon. “The executive body of Municipal Corporation Doctors Association today decided to call off the strike,” President of the Association Dr R R Gautam said.

A delegation of the Association earlier met Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain who assured them that the “official process” has been started to meet their demand of taking over of municipal corporation health services by the government.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday offered a Rs 300-crore loan to the capital’s civic bodies, asking them to end their strike, while the

Earlier this week, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a loan of Rs.551 crore for payment of salaries to striking workers of two municipal corporations in the national capital and urged them to call off their strike.

However, the agitating employees, mainly those of East and North Delhi municipal corporations, refused to call off the indefinite strike and demanded a permanent solution to the problem of fund crunch being faced by the civic bodies before they ended their stir.