Dy CM demands funds from Centre for Delhi civic bodies
new delhi: Even as municipal corporations in Delhi face an acute shortage of funds with the perennial threat of staffers striking due to unpaid salaries, Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday demanded that the Centre fulfill its responsibilities towards civic bodies and disburse grants-in-aid to the three MCDs here.
Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia was speaking at the annual meeting of chief ministers with the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in preparation for the Union Budget 2022-23 when he demanded that civic bodies of Delhi be included in the grant-in-aid allocation as mandated under the Fifteenth Finance Commission.
"The national capital is the face of the country, but today the Municipal Corporations of Delhi are facing acute shortage of funds and are not able to maintain the cleanliness and development in the capital. Therefore, funds should be provided to the municipal corporations of Delhi like other states," Sisodia said.
He added that the Fifteenth Finance Commission allocated grant-in-aid of Rs 4,36,361 crore for the local bodies for the award period 2021-2026 but Delhi's local bodies were omitted from this on the principle that only states are covered under the award scheme.
"The omission of the local bodies of Delhi by the Union Finance Commission on technical grounds does not help the constitutional mandate of strengthening the local bodies," he said, adding that given the current scenario, the MCDs must be considered for this GIA.
He also noted that when the Delhi government needs to give funds to municipal corporations, it is asked to follow the Finance Commission like other states but when the Delhi government asks for funds from the Finance Commission, it is told that Delhi is a UT and hence its share in central taxes cannot be raised. This contradiction must be addressed by the central government, Sisodia said.
In addition to this, the Deputy CM pressed for the Centre to actively pursue GST compensation and increase Delhi's allocation in Central taxes. He said that the Capital has been getting a fixed Rs 325 crore for the last 21 years and in that same time Central Assistance has dropped from 5.14 per cent to 0.9 per cent of Delhi's budget.
Sisodia thus requested the Centre to allocate Rs 1,925 crore in the Revised Budget Estimate for 2021-22 and requested for Rs 2,020 crore in Central Assistance in the 2022-23 Union Budget.
He added that the Centre must enable the DDA to help with setting up e-vehicle charging points to implement the Delhi government's e-vehicle policy and also sought financial assistance to set up Sainik Schools in the Capital.
