Mayors of Delhi MCs Hit Out at AAP Govt Over Budgetary Allocation

Mayors of the BJP-led municipal corporations on Friday alleged that the Delhi government in its budget has reduced allocation to the local bodies as it wants to paralyze the three civic bodies. The charge was made in a joint press conference held by North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash, South Delhi Mayor Anamika, and East Delhi Mayor Nirmal Jain at the Civic Centre, where other senior officials were also present.

The three mayors jointly said that the Delhi government has reduced budgetary allocation of all three corporations as it wanted to paralyze the civic agencies, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation said in a statement. The three leaders claimed that the Delhi government’s budget has been increasing every year while the corporations’ share is decreasing.

The Delhi government on March 10 had presented a Rs 69,000-crore budget themed on “patriotism” for the financial year 2021-22, announcing free COVID-19 vaccination to all in its hospitals in the coming phases of the ongoing inoculation drive. Presenting the budget for the seventh consecutive time in the Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had proposed to allocate Rs 16,377 crore, one-fourth of the total budget for the education sector while the health sector got Rs 9,934 crore. In other allocations, Sisodia had said, “Our government will provide financial support of Rs 4,367 crore to the local bodies.

This includes an amount of Rs 2,298 crore as a tied fund for the implementation of schemes, programs, projects by the local bodies and Rs 2,069 crore as Basic Tax Assignment (BTA)”. In addition to the above, an amount of Rs 1,805 crore has been provided for the local bodies as a share in stamps and registration fee and one-time parking fee. The government is thus giving total financial support of Rs 6,172 crore to the local bodies in the budget, he had said.

South Delhi Mayor Anamika alleged that the Delhi government is paralyzing the civic agencies by reducing budget allocation every year. She said the government is trying to derail the ongoing development works of all three corporations so that it could get political benefits in the upcoming municipal elections. North Delhi Mayor Prakash said the budget presented by the Delhi government was baseless and far from the reality. He said in 2018-19, the Delhi government made a provision of Rs 6,930 cr for the corporations, in 2019-20 it was Rs 6,380 cr, in 2020-21 it made a provision of Rs 6,828 cr and in 2021-22 it is just Rs 6,172 cr, which is nearly Rs 700 crore less than the last year.

East Delhi Mayor Jain said that the city government is busy with sloganeering and releasing advertisements as they have nothing to do with the development of the city. The AAP government has constantly accused the three corporations of indulging in corruption and misusing funds.

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