MCD introduces cut motion in House, financial powers of Mayor to increase

New Delhi: A cut motion was presented in the Special House Meeting held at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday to hold Budget-related discussions.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors, Praveen Kumar, Rakesh Joshi, Ravinder Bhardwaj, Mohd Sadiq and others proposed amendments in the Budget wherein funds allotted to certain departments would be decreased and the

amount would be transferred to “Discretionary Expenses” under the Mayor.

Along with this, proposals were made to allocate a certain amount to the Garbage Management Fund.

This would provide more financial power to the MCD leader, allowing her authority to disburse expenses within Rs 5 crore when needed. The culmination of the amount proposed to be allocated under the Mayor’s discretionary fund is almost Rs 1,000 crore, while another Rs 500 crore has been proposed to be allocated to Garbage Management.

Opposition parties have objected to this.

“AAP’s focus is on stripping employees’ salary funds and the rights of all committees. They plan to seize this amount under the name of the Garbage Management Fund,” alleged Leader of Opposition in the House, Raja Iqbal Singh.

He added, “The Aam Aadmi Party is unlawfully stripping the powers of the permanent committee, which is wrong, and the Bharatiya Janata Party strongly opposes it.” On the other hand, Mayor Shelly Oberoi, Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Leader of the House Mukesh Goyal held a press conference condemning the “ruckus” in the House.

“The cut and motion book about which they were creating a ruckus is part of the budget process. People from both the ruling party and the opposition put forward their own cut motions and voting takes place at the time of finalising the budget. Accordingly, motions are accepted in the final budget. This is a normal procedure, but creating ruckus during the House is wrong,” said Goyal.