New Delhi [India], August 1 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday said that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is not getting its due from the Centre and that it should get Rs 5,243 crore grant based on the urban population of the national capital.
Bhardwaj, who is Delhi Urban Development Minister, said the money will help the MCD improve infrastructure, specially related to road and drainage.
Addressing a press conference, he said the Centre gives grants to various urban local bodies on the basis of population.
“The MCD is not getting its due. The local bodies are given grants. According to figures of urban population in Delhi derived from 2011 census, MCD should get grant of Rs 5,243 crore. Pune, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh get such grants,” the AAP leader said.
“In different states, there are urban bodies, the central government gives grants to these urban local bodies on the basis of the population. I am asking for the grant for MCD as it is an urban local body,” he said
Bhardwaj, who also has Health, Tourism, Art Culture, Industries and Flood Control portfolios, said that when the Centre brought an ordinance to negate the Supreme Court order and restore to itself power over “services” in Delhi, it had made grand statements about the UT being the capital of the entire country but has not given money to the MCD.
“Rather you should give special treatment to Delhi but even if you do not want to give special treatment, then the grant that the Centre gives to urban local bodies….the total grant from 2021 to 2026 will be Rs 1.21 lakh crore and it is calculated on the basis of 2011 census,” he said.
The minister said India has about 37.7 crore urban population and for Delhi the number is 1.63 crore, according to according to the 2011 census.
” The grant for Delhi comes to Rs 5,243 crore. This is the right of MCD. I am not talking of any special treatment. This is the amount due from the Centre. I request the PM to please allow this grant to Delhi so that proper infrastructure can be developed,” Bhardwaj said, adding that he will also write a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Bhardwaj said the same demand was also made by party leader Manish Sisodia and even by Manoj Tiwari when was Delhi BJP chief.
“MCD should get its rightful share of the money. Yesterday the court said that Delhi’s infrastructure is a hundred years old, so we should get this fund,” he said.
Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi, who also addressed the press conference, said that she wrote a letter to the Union Finance Minister demanding a budget for MCD.
“The Centre presented the budget on July 23. Before that, I had written a letter to the Finance Minister demanding a budget for MCD. How does the Central Government give money to different urban local bodies of the country? However, the Centre has not given money to MCD to date. We had demanded that Rs 10,000 crore be given to MCD. But this time too, the Centre’s step-motherly behaviour was seen and we did not get even a single rupee. People of Delhi contribute the maximum in terms of taxes. I again request that MCD should be given money. We need money to revamp the drainage system,” she said.
Three students died on July 27 after the basement of a building housing a coaching centre in Delhi’s Old Rajendra Nagar was flooded following rains. (ANI)
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