Hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s full page letter to the common man appeared in a national daily on Friday, appealing to the Delhi Development Authority to pay Rs.1,500 crore property tax due to the fund-starved civic bodies, the land agency issued a statement denying the claims while maintaining that it will take a step only after the High Court order on November 19.
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Mr. Kejriwal stated in the letter that while the Delhi government has paid its dues to the three corporations, the DDA has not done so. He urged the Centre to make sure the land agency makes the payment in time so that the safai karamcharis on strike can resume duty.
The DDA said in a statement that it has, through a semi-official letter to the Delhi Chief Secretary, informed that as DDA lands are Union lands, it does not make the agency liable to pay property taxes to the municipal corporations on such lands. It also maintained that the Delhi High Court is seized of the matter, which will come up for hearing on November 19 and the agency will follow the court’s order.
“The DDA also clarified that in respect of properties [permanent office buildings, staff quarters and rented properties], where property tax is due to the corporations, the DDA has been paying such tax regularly. To date, the DDA has paid Rs.328.26 crore to the corporations on this account. The DDA also pointed out that the corporations owe it Rs.500 crore on account of reimbursement of maintenance charges incurred by the DDA in respect of various colonies since around 2004, as such maintenance jobs are the responsibility of the corporations and not the DDA,” it added. About five days back, Mr. Kejriwal had written to Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung, who is also the chairman of the DDA, to direct the civic agency to immediately clear its dues running up to Rs.1,500 crore to the municipal corporations of Delhi, which are facing financial crisis.
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Then too, the DDA had junked the claims and asserted that it was the corporations that were liable to pay charges for maintaining parks and colonies.
The DDA claims that once it develops any colony, the same is handed over to the corporations for maintenance, but the corporations refuse to take them over forcing the land agency to maintain it and incur expenses.
In a late night development on Friday, Mr. Kejriwal directed the Chief Secretary to immediately convene a joint meeting of the DDA and Commissioners of three corporations after the DDA, in a letter to Delhi government, admitted that it owes service charges to the civic bodies, the amount of which can be mutually worked out
The DDA said as its lands are Union lands it does not make the agency liable to pay property taxes to the civic bodies on such lands