MCD passes 16,683 cr Budget for 2024-25 amid pandemonium
New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) passed their annual budget worth Rs 16,683 crores for the upcoming financial year of 2024-2025 in a Special House Session on Thursday at MCD Civic Centre.
The House Session witnessed chaos when the Leader of the House, Mukesh Goyal attempted to present the Budget, as per protocol, but could not finish his speech. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors stood guard around the Mayor’s podium as she announced the Budget in the absence of MCD Commissioner, Gyanesh Bharti.
‘From the last three days, all our members expressed their views on the budget. Although the budget was to be discussed on February 6 and 7, the opposition created ruckus instead of giving their suggestions.
Their plan today was to not allow the budget to be passed in the house. But we knew that if we did not pass the budget today, we would face difficulty in paying salaries to our employees. If the demands of the opposition were legitimate and they had confidence in themselves then they should have voted on the cut motion,’ claimed Goyal.
Delhi Mayor, Shelly Oberoi added, ‘Our biggest achievement is that there has been no change in the budget presented by the MCD Commissioner. There has been no change in the income and expenditure presented in the budget. Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated in the budget for the maintenance of roads. Apart from this, Rs 400 crore has been kept for waste management and Rs 500 crore has been kept in the Mayor’s Discretionary Fund.’
The Commissioner had initially proposed the budget on December 8 2023 in the Special Budget Meeting of the House.
The MCD Leaders had tagged this as the “Commissioner’s and officers’ budget”, and promised to hold more than 200 meetings to take public opinions for the final budget.
Additionally, during the Budget discussion on February 6, 2024, a cut motion had been presented where AAP councillors had proposed amendments to the budget, requesting funds worth Rs 1,000 crores and Rs 500 crores from different Heads to be allocated under “Discretionary Budget - Mayor” and “Garbage Fund” respectively.
