Sanitation services would collapse if funds not released: NDMC

A delegation of NDMC led by its Mayor today called on Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to put forth the financial crisis situation faced by the civic body, who said sanitation services would "soon collapse" if funds were not provided to the corporation.
The delegation which included North Delhi Mayor Ravinder Gupta, Deputy Mayor Neelam Goyal and Standing Committee Chairman Mohan Bhardwaj, had on May 9 met Chief Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia yesterday and had asked for release of funds due to the NDMC.
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation had asked Kejriwal and later Sisodia to release the amount due to the civic body, besides its global share.

During the meeting today at the Raj Niwas, the Mayor told Jung that they "did not receive positive response" from Kejriwal and Sisodia.
Gupta requested Jung to ask the AAP-led Delhi government to pay the NDMC its due share of approximately Rs 2,000 crore and to Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to pay Rs 590 crore. The Lt Governor is also the Chairman of the DDA.
The Mayor told Jung that if "Kejriwal government maintains the same attitude, the sanitation services and other services may collapse and the ones to suffer the most would be common people of Delhi."
"Starting from its constitution, the NDMC was under the debt of Rs 638 crore. The corporation should get 5.5 per cent of global share of the total tax but the Delhi government has bifurcated this between 4 per cent as global share and 1.5 percent as Municipal Reform Fund and this 1.5 per cent share would be released only when the corporation runs into profit," Gupta said.