Corpns yet to get funds under clean India scheme

Asked to submit revised proposal now

The three municipal corporations in the city are yet to receive funding to strengthen their sanitation services despite the launch of the nationwide Swachh Bharat campaign nearly six months ago.

This comes at the time when two of the three civic agencies have been struggling to pay their employees for months now, which led the sanitation workers to stop lifting garbage since last week.

Sanitation workers have been on strike for days demanding salaries from the cash-starved east civic agency. Even the North Corporation is in the red as it has not been able to pay salaries to its over 70,000 employees in time.

The civic agencies have not got money under the Swachh Bharat fund’, said officials at a meeting of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee on Monday.
Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel asked officials about the fate of the Rs 500 crore ‘Swachh Bharat fund’ promised by the Centre.

To which Additional Commissioner Deepak Hastir replied that no funds had been received by the North Corporation under Swachh Bharat fund. He added that the civic agency had first submitted an application for a scheme of Rs 250 crore, later revising it to Rs 350 crore.

“We were told that the scheme had some components that did not come under Swachh Bharat some 10 days ago. So we have been asked to give a revised scheme,” he added.
Officials of the South and East Corporations also admitted that the civic agencies have not received funds under Swachh Bharat.

“The Centre made the corporations do all the work, but it hasn’t given any money to them,” said Goel.

The Opposition Congress in the municipal corporations lashed the Centre for cutting the civic bodies’ budgetary allocations. Goel alleged that the Modi government had cut Rs 306 crore in the allocations for the North Corporation.

The Leader of the Opposition in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Farhad Suri, said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s budget for 2015-2016 had cut the three corporations’ allocations by Rs 651 crore.

BJP councillors had held a protest against the Delhi government last week, alleging it had reduced the corporations’ funding.

“The BJP can protest against the AAP government all they want, but what about the Modi government’s cut in the corporations’ budgetary allocations,” Suri added.

The funds-strapped civic agencies had amplified their sanitation services like garbage clearing, sweeping and repair work after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the mission to clean India on October 2, 2014.