New Delhi, June 28 (PTI): The Delhi government’s claim that it gets only Rs 325 crore from the Centre despite generating over Rs 91,000 crore in tax revenue today prompted the Delhi High Court to seek the Finance Ministry’s stand on the issue.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked central government standing counsel Sanjeev Narula to seek instructions on the issue before the next date of hearing of PILs on preventing the spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue in the national capital.
When it was asked to bear the cost of a public awareness programme to be designed by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority on garbage disposal, the Delhi government said it was bearing all the expenses of paying the municipal corporations and other agencies, while receiving a paltry assistance from the Centre.
It said that while its contribution to the Centre’s coffers has increased 10 fold since 2002, what it has been receiving in return since then was only Rs 325 crore.The Delhi government said that the high court in another matter had directed the Centre to implement the recommendations of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission, but it has not been done.
This was submitted in response to the three municipal corporations’ claim that they were not getting sufficient funds from the Delhi government as it was not implementing the Fourth Finance Commission.
The Delhi government, represented by advocate Sanjoy Ghose, also told the bench that under the Swachh Bharat scheme, the Centre has released Rs 104 crore to the MCDs.
In addition to that, the Delhi government has released Rs 35 crore to the MCDs under the same scheme, he said and added that these funds were lying unutilised, due to which the Centre was not disbursing more money.
When the court asked the three municipal corporations what they were doing with the money they have received, the MCDs said that under the scheme, they cannot use it till they generate nearly twice that amount on their own.
The corporations said that under the scheme, for every Rs 100, 35 per cent comes from the Centre and Delhi government and the rest has to be generated by the MCDs.
The court has sought to know the Centre’s stand on whether these unutilised funds under the Swachh Bharat scheme can be used by the corporations.
