Mayors meet L-G, demand clearing of dues by Delhi govt
Mayors from the three municipal corporations of Delhi — led by Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and other BJP MLAs —on Wednesday met lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal over the alleged non-payment of dues by the state government to the corporations.
The delegation submitted a memorandum to the L-G and sought his intervention on the issue of the payment of Rs 13,000 crore that the government allegedly owes to the civic bodies.
North corporation mayor Jai Prakash, south corporation mayor Anamika Mithilesh and east corporation mayor Nirmal Jain were part of the delegation that met the L-G.
Bidhuri said that MLAs and mayors had requested Baijal to look into the matter of payment of dues, including Rs 10,000 crore property tax, from the Delhi government.
“We have requested the L-G to direct the Delhi government to immediately pay corporations their Rs 13,000 crore dues and Rs 10,000 that they owe in property tax. The rigid behaviour of the Delhi government towards non-payment of dues is adversely affecting salary disbursal of civic employees,” Bidhuri said.
Jai Prakash, mayor of north corporation, said the BJP delegation sought the intervention of the L-G in solving the financial crisis as funds were being withheld by the Delhi government.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Tuesday alleged “corruption and mismanagement” in the BJP-ruled municipal corporations. Kejriwal had also claimed that his government had been paying 3-4 times more funds to the three municipal corporations since 2015, as compared to previous regimes in Delhi.
Teachers and doctors of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation have been protesting against non-payment of their salaries for the last 3-4 months. The north civic body, however, on Tuesday claimed to have paid salaries of doctors up to September 2020 and salaries of sanitation employees and domestic breeding checkers up to August 2020.