The Chairperson of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Standing Committee, Shkiha Rai, announced a hike in old-age pensions and other measures while presenting budget proposals at a House meeting on Thursday.
Hike in pension to ₹2000 from the current ₹1000 will come at an increased cost of ₹11 crore to the Corporation. Apart from this, Ms. Rai said that up to 20 water treatment plants will be made functional.
The chairperson proposed introducing at least one ‘smart school’ in each ward as well as providing printers, computers, water purifiers and coolers to all schools. She proposed increasing the provision for moral education from ₹10 lakh to ₹25 lakh.
The chairperson also announced plans to set up a ‘robotic dinosaur museum’ and a 5-D theatre system at Tagore Garden.
To control the stray dog menace in the SDMC jurisdiction, she said, five new additional stray dog sterilisation centres will be set up and that up to 90,000 dogs will be sterilised this year.
Property tax proposals made by the Commissioner were rejected by the Chairperson. These include hikes in property tax rates across categories and the introduction of new taxes including a betterment tax, professional tax and education cess, as proposed by the other Corporations. With the general elections around the corner, earlier in the week, the political wings of the North and East Corporations rejected similar tax proposals made by the Commissioners of the respective civic bodies.
