NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court suggested the Centre to directly give funds to the civic bodies in the national capital instead of routing it through the Delhi government. “Instead of you (Centre) giving funds to the Delhi government and then Delhi government giving it to the MCDs, you give it directly to the corporations,” the HC said.
The suggestion from a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan came during the hearing of an application moved by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NrDMC) claiming that funds under various heads were due to be released to it by the Delhi government. The corporation’s contention has been opposed by the Delhi government.
Earlier on August 18, the high court had directed that a meeting be held between the Centre, Delhi government and representatives of the corporations to find a solution to the financial difficulties faced by the three MCDs. The high court had also said that a committee so constituted can look into the financial aspects of the corporations as well as the Delhi government which has claimed that it has not received from Centre over Rs 10,000 crore as its share of the GST collection.
On Tuesday, Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra and additional standing counsel Satykam told the bench that a meeting was held on September 4 between officials of the AAP government and the Centre. They said that they need to seek instructions from the government with regard to what transpired in the meeting as its minutes were received only yesterday.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma also said the same, but added that according to the minutes, the Delhi government has said it was cutting funding to the corporations by 57 per cent due to shortfall in its tax revenue by the same percentage in the current financial year. The ASG questioned whether this cut was being applied to other government departments or only corporations. In response to this, Mehra said that while the Centre expects the Delhi government to perform its duties with regard to the corporations’ funding, it was not performing its own duty to provide funds to the states/union territories.