‘Political stunt’: Delhi’s civic bodies slam decision to implement DFC recommendations
Representatives of deliberative wings of the civic agencies said the Delhi assembly cleared the report in a hurry to avoid payment of funds to the north, east and south corporations as recommended by the fourth commission.
The Delhi government on Thursday faced flak from the civic bodies over its decision to implement recommendations of the Fifth Delhi Finance Commission (DFC).
Representatives of deliberative wings of the civic agencies said the Delhi assembly cleared the report in a hurry to avoid payment of funds to the north, east and south corporations as recommended by the fourth commission.
East Delhi mayor Bipin Bihari said, “The Delhi government has not paid sufficient funds for the past three years and the matter of non-payment of funds as per the fourth DFC is already in the high court. During the last hearing, the court had directed the Delhi government to pay arrears from November 2017 till March 2019 as per the fourth DFC, which would amount R 2,500 crore (without deducting the amount already received) for east Delhi. To avoid payment of this money, they adopted the fifth DFC report.”
“In comparison, under the fifth DFC, we will get only ₹1,125 crore for this period (November 2017 to March 2019). We will raise the matter in next court hearing on January 8,” Bihari said.
EDMC officials said the civic agency was reeling under a financial crisis since the MCD’s trifurcation in 2012 and finding it hard to pay salaries.
“In the past three years, sanitation workers have gone on strike five times. The situation will not improve until we get enough funds for all-round development. The Delhi government has implemented the fifth DFC report from April 2016, which will lead to great loss,” a senior EDMC official said.
North corporation’s leader of house Tilak Raj Kataria said unlike the third and fourth DFCs, the Delhi government has not kept any provision of ‘plan head’ in the fifth DFC, which would lead to a major loss for the civic agencies.
“As per the devolution formula, 12.5% of tax collection that will be transferred to the local bodies will be divided into two parts. But apart from this, we need funds for development works in education, health and urban development sector. The non implementation of the fourth DFC would lead to a loss of ₹1,531.76 crore for us,” he said.
“Passing the recommendations of the fifth DFC is a political stunt to fool citizens of Delhi,” he said.
Leader of house in the south corporation, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, said the Delhi government can’t neglect their share just because they are doing financially well. “We have prominent parts of Delhi to look after and we need funds for regular maintenance,” she said.