Ready to take over east civic body, govt tells Centre

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said the Delhi government would be happy to take over the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) if the Centre was unable to handle it, clearing the decks for another showdown between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said the Delhi government would be happy to take over the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) if the Centre was unable to handle it, clearing the decks for another showdown between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP.

East-Delhi-Municipal-Corporation-workers-dump-garbage-on-the-road-in-Shahdara-in-protest-against-non-paywent-of-salaries-on-time-Sonu-Mehta-HT-Photo

Sources said the Delhi government was planning to write a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to take over the administrative power of the east civic body.

“There is a provision in the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act 1957 that the government can take over the municipal corporation. As per section 490 of the DMC Act 1957, the Centre can hand over the administrative works of a corporation to the Delhi government if the corporation is financially unviable and fails to fulfil its responsibility. In this case, we will ask for the EDMC since it is in loss and has completely collapsed due to corruption,” said a government official.

“They are inciting sanitation workers to throw garbage on the roads. They have starved them of salary for three months, just to create pressure on the government. Legal opinions are being sought and we will write to the L-G soon,” the official added.

Condemning the move, state BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said this indicated the government’s disrespect towards corporations.

“The corporations in the entire country are run with the help of state governments because their financial resources are not sufficient to meet their expenses. It would be better if the AAP government concentrates on fulfilling the promises made to the people instead of worrying about grabbing powers of corporations,” he said.

Meenakshi, mayor of EDMC, said, “We are not begging for funds but demanding our ‘global share’ from the Delhi government and this is our right. We know better how to run the corporation. We advise the Delhi government to concentrate on resolving their internal issues and worry about fulfilling the promises made to the people of Delhi.”

Standing committee chairman BB Tyagi said: “I find this state very irresponsible. They should give our share of funds and then decide if we are not been able to deliver our job properly or not. Moreover, the government is running under loss and that doesn’t mean that we should take over the government here. We all the elected representatives and we should respect public decision and work accordingly.”