Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla met Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday and gave detailed information about the poor financial condition of the Municipal Corporation.
The Mayor said that the Chandigarh Administration is treating the Municipal Corporation step-motherly. The Municipal Corporation does most of the work related to services, yet the grant is not given as per the requirement.
Not only this, despite the administration having additional funds, the corporation is not being given money even to pay the salaries of the employees. Leave aside development work, the salaries of the employees have not been paid for three months.
Home Minister Amit Shah expressed deep concern after listening to Mayor Harpreet Babla. Along with this, a report has also been sought from the Chandigarh Administration on the financial condition of the Municipal Corporation. Home Minister Shah said that he will personally talk to Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria in this matter.
Mayor Babla also put the officials of the administration in the dock in front of the Home Minister and said that the officials are misleading the administrator. Instead of cooperating in improving the situation, they are complicating the matter.
Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla was accompanied by her husband and BJP vice-president Davinder Singh Babla in this meeting. Demand was made for additional 200 crores for the financial year 2024-25 and to keep the grant quarterly instead of monthly in the coming financial year.
Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Bittu was also present
During this meeting of Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla, Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu was also with her. Ravneet Bittu told Home Minister Amit Shah that he has family relations with the Babla family. Bittu also urged the Home Minister to take cognizance of the poor condition of Chandigarh Corporation.
Demand for department and grant on the recommendation of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission
The Mayor demanded the Home Minister to release funds as per the recommendations of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission. Till the fourth commission is resolved, he also requested to implement an interim solution based on the recommendations of the third DFC.
Babla said that the report of the fourth DFC was adopted in the year 2014, despite this the Chandigarh Administration and the Home Ministry have not implemented it till now. Due to this, the Municipal Corporation is facing a serious financial crisis.
Work stopped due to grant of Rs 560 crore in 2024-25
Road repair: The corporation manages two thousand km of roads in Chandigarh and repairs and constructs 270 km of roads every year. The road is not being built.
Beauty and Parks: Maintains 1800 Neighborhood Parks, more than 100 large parks and 1.75 lakh trees.
Sanitation and Waste Management: The corporation is also responsible for cleanliness, garbage collection, processing and control of stray animals throughout the city.
Street Lights: The corporation also bears the entire cost of repair and maintenance of street lights on major roads.
Revenue Crisis: The corporation’s income comes mainly from property tax and water bills, but government departments are defaulters of crores.
Rights demanded from Home Minister under the fourth DFC
30 percent of VAT and local excise duty
100 percent of motor vehicle tax and registration fee
25 percent of tax on sale, purchase or consignment of goods
100 percent of service tax collection and stamp duty
