JOIN USWill treat Rs 550 crore by govt as grant, say mayors
The three mayors said in unison that the municipal corporations will treat the Rs 550 crore as grants under the Third Finance Commission not as “loan”.
“The Kejriwal government is giving conditional funds to the corporations for disbursing salaries. Civic agencies aren’t a charity case but it is their constitutional right to get funds from the city government under Third Finance Commission.”
The mayors also said they are ready for a CBI inquiry as demanded by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, if only a CBI probe will be conducted against corrupt government departments and its MLAs.
“Kejriwal government is providing conditional funds but it is not alms but a constitutional right of the Corporations under article 243. It is a political gimmick of AAP-led Delhi Government to trap the Corporations into a debt as the CM is eying 2017 municipal elections,” the three Mayors said.
They demanded the Delhi government to release funds as per the Third Finance Commission and implement the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission recommendations “as any amount of loan granted will not provide a permanent solution”.
They also informed that in the last financial year, the corporations were able to pay salaries on time by leasing out a part of Civic Centre building to the Income Tax department that generated a revenue of about Rs 1,800 crore.
On the statement of CM that advertisement department of the corporations can earn ten times the revenue it is generating now, the mayors said, “The government is free to take over the department and should provide us that five times more revenue.”
Chairman Standing Committee North Delhi Municipal Corporation Mohan Bhardwaj strongly condemned the claim of the government that it has removed 80 per cent garbage from roads across the city. Chairperson Standing Committee of East Delhi Municipal Corporation termed it a “bundle of lies as not even a single truck of garbage has been disposed at Bhalaswa or Narela – Bawana landfill sites”.
“Only 236.3 Metric Tonne has been lifted in 55 trips in the last three days from East Delhi area. The EDMC lifted 3455 Metric Tonne of garbage in 873 trips in the last few days,” she added.
Municipal commissioners of North and East Corporations appealed to the employees on strike to resume their duties as the municipalities are in the process releasing salaries to all the employees till January.
But striking associations said they want a permanent solution to this mess.
“We won’t settle for salaries this time. We want a permanent solution to the issue of funds and we think reunification of the three corporations is the real solution,” said Rajender Mewati, general secretary of United Front of MCD Employees.