MCD finally gets money from Delhi govt

The cash-strapped Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has finally managed to secure a sum of Rs 1,490 crore from Delhi government as the first instalment of its initial demand of Rs 4,500 crore.

This money will, however, not be used to fast-track Commonwealth Games projects, according to mayor P R Sawhney. The civic agency said it will wait for the second instalment to fund its various Games projects.

According to Delhi mayor P R Sawhney, Delhi government will release the amount on Tuesday. "MCD will receive Rs 390 crore to fund its non-plan expenditure, another Rs 500 crore to fund its plan expenditure and it will receive Rs 100 crore as grant. MCD will further be given a sum of Rs 500 crore in the form of a sanctioned loan," said Sawhney.

MCD claims that it will use the amount to immediately pay the 3,000 contractors who are currently on strike demanding pending salaries. Besides this, it will use the funds to pay pension amount due to the elderly, widows and the physically handicapped for a period of three months.

The remaining amount will be used to pay discretionary funds to its councillors. In January this year, MCD had passed a resolution to pay discretionary funds ranging between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore to each member of its deliberative wing for funding various projects at their respective levels.

"Our Games projects are mainly on-track. Whatever little is required will be looked into soon after the state government releases the second instalment. The state government has released a part of our requirement and will release the rest later as it also has the burden of completing its own Games projects," Sawhney said.

On July 23, in a four-page letter written to Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta on Thursday, MCD commissioner K S Mehra had said that while the MCD was making every effort to augment its internal revenue resources and to curtail expenditures without hampering development work, it required a grant of Rs 3,539 crore in grant and another Rs 1,000 crore in loan for paying salaries, funding various Commonwealth Games-related projects and for compensating its poor property tax collections among other things.