The Opposition Congress on Thursday lashed out at the ruling BJP in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation for amending budget proposals without the approval required and for failing to achieve targets for income and expenditure.
Final budget on Feb 10
Initiating a discussion of the 2017-2018 budget in the House, Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel said that the standing committee chairperson, Parvesh Wahi, had changed allocations and expenditure for certain sectors without the approval of the committee or the House. With elections slated for April this is the last budget to be presented in this term. The final budget will be presented by the Leader of the House on February 10.
“The budget as passed by the Standing Committee was changed by the chairperson, but this is something only the House has the power to do. He is in contempt of both the House and the Standing Committee. The budget should be referred back,” said Mr. Goel.
‘Deficits rising’
Mr. Goel also spoke about how the corporation had seen deficits rise and income fall in the past five years. The BJP has been in power in the municipality since 2007, when, Mr. Goel said, the outgoing Congress had left with an opening balance of ₹905.78 crore.
However, instead of surplus, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, till 2012, and subsequently the North Delhi Municipal Corporation had seen increasing deficits. “In 2017-2018, the deficit is estimated to be ₹3,610 crore. What happened to the surplus we had left in 2007?” asked Mr. Goel.
With regard to the financial crisis the corporation faced, Mr. Goel said the reason was not the splitting up of the MCD into three separate entities, but “financial mismanagement” by the BJP. He said that not only had the corporation failed to achieve targets set for annual income, but had also been inflating targets every year to score political points.
“Just to please voters and councillors, the corporation increases expenditure in the budget. But, these promises remain on paper,” said Mr. Goel.
About property tax, one of the biggest sources of revenue, he said the corporation had failed to increase the number of properties in the tax net.
