Delhi: Municipal bodies hunt for cash crunch fix ahead of next year’s polls

The three corporations recently initiated a process to finalise the budget for financial year 2022-23, in which South and East corporations have proposed a hike in property tax to tide over the financial crisis. None of the three corporations have proposed any major infrastructure projects due to the funds crunch

The poor financial health of Delhi’s three municipalities could be a serious handicap to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ambition to retain control of the civic bodies it has helmed for over 14 years, a concern highlighted by strikes by resident doctors in North Delhi civic hospitals over unpaid salaries.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Durgesh Pathak said the biggest issue plaguing the municipal corporations is the BJP’s failure to improve sanitation in the city in the past 15 years. (PTI)

The municipal corporations need a plan to resolve the severe cash crunch before the upcoming elections to the civic bodies, party leaders said.

The corporations’ poor rankings in the recent Swachh Survekshan have compounded the BJP’s concerns. The South Delhi corporation ranked 31st, the North corporation 43rd, while the East body cropped up in the bottom four, ranking 45th.

“While we have to deal with anti-incumbency, the bigger issue is the poor corporations’ financial position,” said Jai Prakash, a BJP leader and former mayor of the North corporation. “We are unable to pay salaries on time due to delay in payment from the state government. But it is difficult to explain it to our employees, who are also voters in Delhi. We have taken up the matter with the party.”

The three civic bodies have been rocked by fresh protests by resident doctors and paramedical staff of the North Delhi corporation due to salary delays. This agitation on Saturday may snowball into a wider strike, after the Confederation of MCD Employees Unions, which comprises 22 municipal workers’ unions, threatened to stay away from work from December 13 if their issues were not solved by then.

While the party has been targeting the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government for “paralysing the corporations by stalling the funds” and held several protests in this regard, the corporations themselves have done little to improve revenue.

The three corporations recently initiated a process to finalise the budget for financial year 2022-23, in which South and East corporations have proposed a hike in property tax to tide over the financial crisis. None of the three corporations have proposed any major infrastructure projects due to the funds crunch. With municipal elections scheduled early next year, chances of BJP-led corporations passing the resolution are slim.

Unifying the corporations could solve the problem, Prakash said. “If not the corporations, then the finance and planning departments should be unified to overcome the financial crisis. We proposed this earlier this year,” he said.

The AAP, however, said corruption and financial mismanagement in the corporations was to blame for the financial crisis.

Durgesh Pathak, in-charge of the party’s municipal affairs, said, “They are blaming the Delhi government to hide their inefficiencies. The problem is corruption and financial mismanagement. They are not able to streamline property tax collection due to which the collection is far less than what it should be. Ideally, the corporation should be getting over ₹2,000 crore as revenue from property tax, but they are able to collect around ₹600 crore.”

But the bigger issue, Pathak said, is the BJP’s failure to improve sanitation in the city in the past 15 years. “The three civic bodies in the capital are not even in the top 10 or 20 of the Swachh Survekshan rankings. The issue of lack of sanitation directly impacts people, but the corporations have done little,” said Pathak.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said that the corporations’ functioning will improve dramatically if the government releases the funds on time and clear the dues. “We are facing problems in giving salaries on time due to the delay in payment of funds by the government. It is a big issue and we are exploring other ways to address this issue. As for sanitation, the corporations have installed compactors to make the city dhalao-free. We are trying to manage everything in the limited funds we have,” said Gupta.

He said that the corporations have done a lot of good work despite the fund crunch. “People, including our employees, understand this. While we will tell people about the work done by us despite shortage of funds, we will also tell them about the lack of work done by the government that has all the funds at its disposal,” he said.

This is what the party is trying to achieve through its Jhuggi Samman Yatra, which started in mid-October. On November 29, BJP president JP Nadda will attend the last day of the 45-day-long campaign. “The slum clusters in the city don’t have basic facilities despite the government having all the funds. The corporations have still done a lot of work despite the fund crunch. This is what we are telling the people in our outreach campaigns,” said Gupta.