NEW DELHI: The absence of mayor in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has put many principal tasks of the civic body in jeopardy. The corporation is just a week away from the deadline to pass this year’s budget, and if the mayor and the standing committee are not elected by then, the special officer of the corporation will be mandated to pass the budget without a debate or discussion.
Officials said they are in a wait-and-watch mode because only a week remains to clear the budget. Meanwhile, AAP has said it will move the Supreme Court for a court-monitored election of the mayor.
“As the mayor has not been elected nor the House constituted, we will wait how the scenario unfolds. We have to meet in the next few days to follow the procedures for clearing the budget.
In case the court directions don’t come by February 15, the Special Officer may have to take the call,” said a senior MCD official. As per the provisions of the Delhi Municipal Act, the budget for the upcoming financial year has to be cleared by February 15.
Officials say the budget passed through the administrative route may have a big impact on the citizens. “In that case, policies concerning the citizens which could have been included in the budget through public discourse would not feature in the budget,” said an official.
“The MCD budget goes through a series of processes before it is passed by the House. After the draft is prepared, it is brought before the standing committee for approval. The committee puts the draft before the House for discussion. Many amendments also get incorporated during the process and then it is cleared by the Mayor,” said Anil Gupta, former Chief Law Officer of MCD.
“The whole mechanism is paralysed in the absence of the mayor and the committee,” said Gupta.
The civic body conducted a meeting last week to discuss the budget proposal for 2023-24 for various provisions, including the funds allocated for various works and the tax slab rates. The municipal commissioner presented the budget proposals worth Rs 16,023 crore to the special officer on December 8 last year.
AAP moves SC seeking early mayor election
The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party’s mayor candidate Shelly Oberoi and others seeking early holding of mayoral election for the MCD. The party moved the SC on Tuesday, a day after the MCD House failed to elect a mayor for the third time following a ruckus.
‘How can we make officers responsible?’
Atul Goel, president of United Residents Joint Action, a group of over 2,500 RWAs, says if passed through bureaucratic channel, the MCD budget will have a huge gap in fulfilling the aspirations of citizens. “We can put our councillors accountable but how are we going to make the officers accountable?” he asked.