Politics inflames Delhi civic mess

AAP-led govt and BJP-run municipalities trade fire over garbage strike, lack of funds for civic bodies; tell each other to ask Centre for help or quit

Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Kapil Mishra and Manoj Kumar took to the streets of east Delhi on Monday, conducting a  safai abhiyan (cleanliness drive) in response to the plight of residents there, with sanitation staff on strike due to non-payment of salaries.

The three municipal corporations are run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and employees had not been paid for months due to lack of funds. The AAP-led Delhi government had refused to give any of its money, asking them to instead approach the BJP-controlled central government.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) managed to clear the pending salaries of sanitation staff (safai karmacharis) for February, with an assurance that the pay for March would be cleared soon.       

The trading of charges between the city government and the BJP has escalated even as mountains of garbage have collected on the streets. B B Tyagi, head of the standing committee of EDMC told Business Standard: “We met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for help and he asked us to go to the Centre. He should approach the Centre, not us.”

The issue was raised in the city's legislative assembly by BJP leader Vijender Gupta (the party has three of the 70 MLAs, the others all being from AAP), demanding the Delhi Finance Commission report of 2013 be presented. The party has demanded the city government devolve to the municipal authorities their share in taxes collected by the government, as recommended by the Commission.

Finance minister Manish Sisodia, instead, lambasted the BJP-led corporations for “inefficiency and mismanagement” and alleged large-scale corruption.

While the municipal corporation in South Delhi is boosted by property tax from the affluent colonies under its jurisdiction, the financial health of EDMC is acute.

Tyagi blamed the state of affairs on the trifurcation of the single Municipal Corporation of Delhi by then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, of the Congress party. Also, he charged the government with non-fulfilment of its commitments. “The Delhi government at that time had committed to give us a grant of Rs 421 crore but instead only Rs 335 crore was given and as a loan. This over the years has aggravated our plight.”

The monthly expenditure of the east corporation is around Rs 100 crore,  amounting to Rs 1,200 crore annually. The revenue generated every year, however, is Rs 700-750 crore.

“The fact that the Delhi government has seemingly washed its hands off the whole issue is nothing but a political move. After all the chief minister and his government are responsible for governance in the city,” said a former bureaucrat in the finance department. “Its not okay for the AAP-led government to be responsible only for free water and free electricity but not for civic issues like cleanliness and roads. If the municipal authorities are not functioning properly, it’s the job of the government to dialogue with them, find a solution to the crisis and ensure they function properly.”

AAP has been demanding statehood for Delhi and the need for all powers to be vested with the Delhi government.  

Sisodia in fact advised the BJP to quit their charges in the municipal corporations and leave the job to them. In addition, the AAP has officially demanded the city government “immediately order a probe into the functioning of the corporations, to fix the rot”.