AAP councillor presents his views on SDMC Budget

New Delhi: In a special meeting of the SDMC Standing Committee on Tuesday, Aam Aadmi Party member Jitendra Kumar gave his views on the budget presented by the corporation on December 7.

He said that doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, DBCs, sanitation and field workers were not being given their dues when it came to wages, extension of contracts or medical insurance, even though they had played a key role in the civic body's COVID-19 measures. "They are being used to fulfil political ambitions", Kumar said.

Speaking about Property Tax, which is the SDMC's chief source of revenue, Kumar said that the reason for falling short of target revenue could not be a lack of funds released from AAP-ruled Delhi Government as the civic body had earlier claimed in its own budget speech. This, he said, was because issues related to property tax and its collection did not fall under the Delhi Government's purview. He said that the AAP was also against any proposal to raise taxes of any kind.

In case SDMC falls short of its target revenue, it should use all means necessary to collect money owed to it by various government and private holdings, instead of putting the burden on private citizens already reeling from the pandemic's economic fallout.