Editor Mr.Mayank Rawat ( Chief Editor Mr. Rohit Mishra )
New Delhi: Raja Iqbal Singh, who assumed charge as mayor, declared his intention to abolish the user charge on Friday.
He also committed to forming the standing committee within a month, noting that there were no impediments from the Supreme Court preventing its formation.
The MCD said on April 7 that “as per the solid waste management (SWM) bye-laws, a ‘user fee’ is to be collected for providing services for garbage collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste. The user fee, as notified in the norms, is being enforced depending on categories specified in SWM bye-laws. The implementation of the rules is being monitored by the Supreme Court,” MCD said.
The decision, however, received severe criticism from residents who questioned collecting the charges from property taxpayers only when more than 50% of people are not paying such tax but generating garbage every day.
On Friday, the Mayor stated that these charges were imposed by the AAP in MCD in consensus with officials and they will soon withdraw these charges.
“We will rather focus on strengthening our sanitation services in the area. People suffered a lot during the tenure of the AAP in MCD due to the shoddy job done by them and we don’t want them to suffer further. We also need to work on improving greenery in parks. These have lost their sheen due to lacking water and infrastructure in the last two and a half years,” he said.
“Pollution, corruption, timely issue of scholarship funds to primary school students, developing dispensary infrastructure, and regularisation of contractual staff as per norms will also be done on priority. We will work in collaboration with opposition for the welfare of public. We saw a time when due to fund paucity, things were not working but with BJP at the Centre, this will not happen now,” he said. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the new mayor will soon start the formation of the standing committee so that financial and administrative decisions can be made in accordance with the DMC Act, 1957.
After achieving success at the Centre and state elections, Delhi BJP under the leadership of Sachdeva managed to regain power in MCD as well. Many major proposals are waiting for the standing committee nod such as engaging a new toll tax operator, approval of layout plans for major projects, a dog park in Jangpura, etc.
AAP, which boycotted the mayor and deputy mayor elections. AAP Delhi state president Saurabh Bharadwaj took to ‘X’ to say: “Despite all kinds of manipulation and political manoeuvring, the BJP still holds only 117 councillors in the 250-member MCD. Even in a House of 238 councillors (12 seats lying vacant in 250 seats MCD), the majority mark is 120. BJP must understand that in a four-engine government, there can be no excuses and no hollow statements anymore. Now they must show results. The public will see their real face within a month.”
“They even attempted to force votes from the nominated aldermen in the mayor election, pushing AAP to approach the SC. The court clearly ruled that aldermen cannot vote,” he alleged.
AAP had previously contested in the Supreme Court regarding the SoP issued for frisking during mayor elections, ward committee elections, and other related matters.
Mayank Rawat
