The Times of India 18.09.2009
MCD takeover: Sheila meets PC
NEW DELHI: Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday met home minister P Chidambaram on the MCD issue. She was accompanied by UD secretary D M Spolia.
Dikshit is believed to have thanked Chidambaram for the proposal to delegate some of the MCD-related powers of the central government to the city government but she also outlined the fact that now with three power centres who can take decisions of MCD city government, central government and LG the administrative confusion of multiplicity of authorities will linger on. She said the city government would want to have complete say over MCD to ensure better civic amenities in the city and also expressed her willingness to forego her demands for control over DDA and Delhi Police.
Finance minister A K Walia meanwhile sought to burn holes in MCD's claims of financial self-sufficiency by releasing a complete list of various monies sanctioned to the civic body by the city government and also a list of its own incomes.
"In all we have given them an amount of Rs 3,509.20 crore of which Rs 1169.20 crore was released under plan head. Their total budget estimate for 2009-10 was Rs 6115.93 crore. Under the non-plan head, Rs 800 crore was given for gran-in-aid in education, Rs 700 crore as share of assigned taxes, Rs 750 crore against duty on transfer of properties and Rs 90 crore from one-time parking charges collection by the city government at the time of registration of vehicles,'' Walia said.
He added that MCD's own funds came from the Rs 850 crore collected as property tax, Rs 300 crore from tax on advertisement, Rs 240 crore from tax on electricity, Rs 1102 crore from miscellaneous income, Rs 128 crore against reimbursement of cost of administrative charges from different schemes and Rs 187 crore from toll tax.
BJP constituted a seven member committee to study the home ministry proposal. The members are Alok Kumar, leader of House Subhash Arya, former mayor Arti Mehra, former standing committee chairman Vijender Gupta, Jagdish Mamgain, R P Singh and Aman Sinha.
Dikshit is believed to have thanked Chidambaram for the proposal to delegate some of the MCD-related powers of the central government to the city government but she also outlined the fact that now with three power centres who can take decisions of MCD city government, central government and LG the administrative confusion of multiplicity of authorities will linger on. She said the city government would want to have complete say over MCD to ensure better civic amenities in the city and also expressed her willingness to forego her demands for control over DDA and Delhi Police.
Finance minister A K Walia meanwhile sought to burn holes in MCD's claims of financial self-sufficiency by releasing a complete list of various monies sanctioned to the civic body by the city government and also a list of its own incomes.
"In all we have given them an amount of Rs 3,509.20 crore of which Rs 1169.20 crore was released under plan head. Their total budget estimate for 2009-10 was Rs 6115.93 crore. Under the non-plan head, Rs 800 crore was given for gran-in-aid in education, Rs 700 crore as share of assigned taxes, Rs 750 crore against duty on transfer of properties and Rs 90 crore from one-time parking charges collection by the city government at the time of registration of vehicles,'' Walia said.
He added that MCD's own funds came from the Rs 850 crore collected as property tax, Rs 300 crore from tax on advertisement, Rs 240 crore from tax on electricity, Rs 1102 crore from miscellaneous income, Rs 128 crore against reimbursement of cost of administrative charges from different schemes and Rs 187 crore from toll tax.
BJP constituted a seven member committee to study the home ministry proposal. The members are Alok Kumar, leader of House Subhash Arya, former mayor Arti Mehra, former standing committee chairman Vijender Gupta, Jagdish Mamgain, R P Singh and Aman Sinha.
