Indian Express 21.01.2010
Cash-strapped MCD provides ‘discretionary’ funds for Games
The cash-strapped Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has now passed a new resolution — to provide discretionary funds ranging between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore to various members of its deliberative wing.
At a time when the civic agency has been facing issues of “irregular cash flow and low revenue generation”, the MCD Standing Committee on Wednesday approved a budgetary amendment under which the Leader of the MCD House will be allocated a sum of Rs 3 crore, while the Leader of Opposition will be allocated Rs 1 crore as part of the discretionary fund in the new fiscal year.
Besides, the chairperson of the MCD’s Education committee has been sanctioned Rs 2 crore, while the chairpersons of the Garden committee, the Health committee and the department of environment management services will be given Rs 1 crore each.
Such funds for these members have been sanctioned for the first time since MCD was constituted. The amount will be allocated from MCD’s non-planned expenditure.
The Standing Committee has also decided to increase the allocation for the chairpersons of all ward committees across the 12 zones from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.
According to the Standing Committee chairperson R K Singhal, there was need for an amendment in the minutes of the new budget to make way for the “new financial allocation” for “massive development work currently on for the Commonwealth Games”.
These members will now have funds at their disposal to help councillors who face problems in carrying out any development work. Councillors are facing fund issues while carrying out work in their areas, especially considering that a lot of development work is in progress for the Commonwealth Games,” Singhal said. He added such a sanction is provided for in the Delhi Municipal Act, 1957.
MCD Leader of the House Subhash Arya said the new allocation will be used in cases of emergency. “The money will be used for development works across the city,” he said.
The MCD already provides such allocations under ‘discretionary funds’ — Rs 6 crore and Rs 5 crore for the Mayor and the Standing Committee chairperson respectively.
Who gets what
Leader of the MCD House Rs 3 crore
Leader of Opposition Rs 1 crore
Chairperson of the MCD’s Education committee Rs 2 crore
Chairpersons of Garden, Health committees and DEMS will each get Rs 1 crore
Chairpersons of all ward committees to now get Rs 50 lakh
