Hot on the heels of the Capital’s other two civic bodies, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee also has reversed all proposals made earlier by its Municipal Commissioner to hike both parking charges and property taxes. Standing Committee Chairman Mahek Singh announced this decision on Tuesday so as to “ensure better services without burdening the people”.
Mr. Singh said that the civic body hopes to increase revenues by bringing more properties under the tax net and increasing the number of parking lots in East Delhi. The civic body has earned revenues of Rs.25 crore this year and hopes to increase this to Rs.80 crore in the next fiscal. “A proposal has been submitted to the Delhi Finance Commission requesting a special package of Rs.8000 crore,” he said, to bridge the development deficit in the civic body’s jurisdiction.
However, among the new proposals that have been included in the budget estimates for the fiscal 2013-14 is setting aside Rs.1 crore towards providing self-defence classes to students for which women security officers will be hired and setting up a sports academy for an equal amount. On the education front, computer labs and libraries will be set up in each school, special educators will be hired to teach differently-abled students and medical records of all students will be maintained.
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On the health front, a children’s ward will be set up in the Swami Dayanand Hospital and the one in Karawal Nagar, an Ayurvedic hospital will be setup in Geeta Colony and mobile dispensaries will provide both allopathic and Ayurvedic medicines.
A proposal has been made to provide a unique property number for each property in East Delhi linked to a property pass book and this has been factored into the budget, said Mr. Singh. In the coming year, work on the civic body’s new headquarters ‘Swami Vivekanand Civic Centre’ will begin.