NEW DELHI: The AAP-led municipal House on Thursday passed a slew of proposals including raising the size of a councillor’s allowance from Rs 300 to Rs 25,000 per meeting, a move that drew criticism from the opposition BJP whose members boycotted the session.
The House cleared a proposal to constitute a new managing committee for the over 160-year-old Hardayal Municipal Public Library and begin door-step delivery of 23 services that will include issuing of birth and death certificates and renewal of factory licence.
While opposition BJP members did not attend the meeting, some of the Congress councillors raised civic issues on sanitation, parking, and other problems faced by residents in their wards, at times leading to heated exchanges among them and a few AAP councillors.
The Delhi BJP had on August 29 announced if the House was held on the day of Raksha Bandhan then its members would not attend it, saying it would be tantamount to “harassment” of municipal employees.
The House meeting began on a sedate note with many councillors from the AAP and Congress parties putting forth issues from their wards relating to the shortage of auto-tippers for collecting garbage, poor upkeep of parks, uncovered drains, and domestic breeding checking (DBC) workers not being provided proper identity cards.
After about two hours of proceedings, the agenda was taken up and all ten items on the agenda except one were passed by the House. One item on the agenda related to toll tax was “referred back” for reconsideration.