The Delhi BJP on Monday requested lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to convene a special session of Delhi Assembly to table and publicise the 4th Delhi Finance Commission Report. All three Delhi BJP MlAs Vijender Gupta, OP Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan held a meeting with Jung regarding this issue. As per the Commission’s formation order, the lt Governor is responsible and bound to get the report of the Finance Commission placed before the Assembly.
In a letter submitted to Jung, the MlAs have said that in 2009, the 4th Delhi Finance Commission, headed by PS Bhatnagar, was constituted to decide the share of MCD in the total revenue of Delhi, the taxes and tolls that MCD could collect and ways and means to improve the financial health of the MCD.
In his letter Gupta has said that after the trifurcation of municipal corporation, the work of Bhatnagar Commission was stalled and it was re-notified in February, 2012. This commission submitted its report in March, 2013. Due to political reasons, then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and after her the Arvind Kejriwal Government suppressed the report of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission.
Gupta further said that the previous Congress Government of Dikshit and the present Kejriwal Government tried to show that the municipal corporations were inefficient and there was financial mismanagement in the corporations, whereas the reality is that the municipal corporations do not have sufficient financial resources. Due to political rivalry, successive Delhi Governments have been treating the corporations in a stepmotherly manner and not giving the lawful share in the revenue of Delhi.
Gupta also claimed that the Delhi Government’s political conspiracy was responsible for economic and administrative mess in all the three municipal corporations.