The Times of India              30.01.2014  

Municipal corporations ask chief minister to release funds

NEW DELHI: Faced with a financial crunch, the three municipal corporations want the state government to immediately release funds that have been pending for more than 3 years. On Wednesday, members of the political wings of the three corporations gave chief minister Arvind Kejriwal a list of 23 issues that require immediate attention.

Post-trifurcation, the corporations, especially those of north and east Delhi, have been facing serious problems and have not been able to take up development work. "The past two years have been really challenging for us as we didn't have adequate funds. On top of this, the previous government had given us a loan of Rs 790 crore,'' said Meera Aggarwal, leader of the House, North Delhi Corporation. The corporations want the government to waive off the loan of Rs 1,767 crore which was given to the three corporations at the time of trifurcation.

The BJP-led corporations also want the government to immediately release Rs 1,709 crore, which it was to pay the erstwhile MCD for switching from 'ratable value method' (RVM) to 'unit area method' (UAM) for calculation of property tax. "There are several schemes under which the government was to pay the civic agency, but the Congress-led government didn't release our share. MCD used to get 70% grant for education till 2008, but it was reduced to 56%. Our global share, which is given to corporations for introducing reforms, was reduced from 5.5% to 4%. We want the government to share the burden of the sixth pay commission. We have an additional burden of Rs 2,000 crore,'' said Subhash Arya, leader of the House, South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

In a 30-minute meeting, councillors discussed issues ranging from additional funds to increasing the powers of corporations. They also demanded that all roads wider than 60 feet be returned to the civic agency.