Delhi Mayor Mahesh Kumar has written to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and objected to the decision to impose user charges for solid waste management. The mayor has called it an undue burden on the public.

A political row has erupted over the imposition of user charges for solid waste management by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).   

Hitting back, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor has stated that the Aam Aadmi Party has deliberately imposed a user surcharge on the people of Delhi under the pretext of garbage collection. “A similar surcharge was proposed earlier in 2021 by the then Commissioner of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation, but the BJP Mayor at that time had halted its implementation.

In contrast, the current Aam Aadmi Party Mayor, Mr. Mahesh Kumar, is merely issuing statements without taking action.The Mayor must answer why he has neither called a meeting of the municipal house on this issue nor directed the Commissioner to stop the collection of the user surcharge,” he said. The Mayor alleged that the proposal to collect user charges along with house tax was never passed by the MCD.

“The proposal was not brought before the House and was instead implemented behind the scenes by Municipal Commissioner Ashwani Kumar. This decision goes against the interests of Delhi’s residents,” he said in his letter.

Kumar said the MCD must ensure that door-to-door services are provided to public before imposing user charges.The work of the concessionaire garbage collection companies in all 12 zones is unsatisfactory, resulting in heaps of garbage everywhere, he added. The Mayor said the situation is currently worse in the western zone, central zone and southern zone. There has been no coordination between the concessionaires and those who collect garbage from homes privately, said Kumar.

“Until the Delhi Municipal Corporation is fully capable of collecting garbage from every house, it will not be appropriate to impose such user charges,” he said. The mayor urged Gupta to immediately direct the MCD to withdraw the decision, stating that citizens are already grappling with inflation and deserve relief, not additional financial pressure. Earlier this week, the mayor also wrote to the commissioner in this regard and indicated that legal options were being explored.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, he claimed the MCD has failed to provide the promised door-to-door garbage collection services despite the residents already being burdened with high taxes.