The financial crisis that has plagued the East Delhi Municipal Corporation for the past many years is due to the corruption and inability of the BJP leadership to make the most of revenue sources, the Opposition Congress said on Friday.
In her last budget speech before the municipal elections, Leader of Opposition Varyam Kaur told the House that the BJP-ruled corporation had failed to develop viable sources of revenue, while employees suffered. The EDMC has been unable to pay staff salaries on time for over two years now. In fact, sanitation workers have gone on strike six times in the past two years over late salary payments.
Responding to the budget for 2017-2018 that is being prepared, Ms. Kaur said that it “lacked mission and vision”.
“Corruption is responsible for this financial crisis. The employees and officials of the corporation have been working without pay for many months. At the same time, the budget estimates are nothing but an attempt to build castles in the air,” said Ms. Kaur.
As per the budget presented by the Commissioner in December, the EDMC is estimated to have a deficit of ₹2,243.25 crore in 2017-2018. In her speech, Ms. Kaur offered suggestions about how the EDMC could increase revenue. She said that the Delhi Metro was using EDMC land for parking, for which the Corporation should get revenue. She added that instead of increasing the rate of property tax, there should be an attempt to get more properties in the tax net.
