Mayor meets Kejriwal, appeals to release money due to NDMC

The debt-ridden NDMC today made an appeal to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for releasing the amount due to the corporation from the Delhi government.
North Delhi Mayor Ravinder Gupta met Kejriwal and apprised him of the financial crunch faced by the civic body.
"We (NDMC) as a civic body want full autonomy, not dependency on Delhi government. And, that is why we need our money that is due from the Delhi government over the years, which amounts to Rs 1,550 cr, besides our global share.
"Kejriwal assured us that he would look into this issue and has asked me to come and meet Finance Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday in this regard," Gupta told PTI.

The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated into -- North, South and East Corporations in 2012, and while SDMC has somehow managed to keep itself out of the red, NDMC and EDMC have been debt-ridden since their creation.
"We were born in 2012 under a debt of Rs 700 crore. And, besides, we are suffering a loss of Rs 3,000 cr...Our expenditure exceeds our revenue by Rs 1,000 cr....Our global share has been reduced from 5.5 pc to 4 pc," he said.

"Our Municipal Reform Fund (MRF) has not been given. They have put condition of profit-making on it. Are civic bodies profit-making institutions or social ones. So, I also asked the chief minister to release our global shares, education grant and MRF," he added.

He alleged that Delhi government was "behaving like a pawnbroker (sud mahajan), worse than a bank lender."
"It is not only not giving our due money, it is also charging interest from us," he claimed.
Gupta said the "NDMC's annual overall expenditure is Rs 3,300 cr out of which Rs 2800 cr is on disbursing salaries only."
"Now, if sanitation workers do not get their salaries, tell me how will they work. They are not going to sweep streets on empty stomach," he said.