The Hindu : New Delhi News : No new tax proposal in NDMC surplus budget

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 01, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

No new tax proposal in NDMC surplus budget

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 31 . Laying special emphasis on beautification of Lutyens' Delhi and upgradation of infrastructure and civic utilities for the Commonwealth Games 2010, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) today presented its Rs.2.5-crore surplus budget for 2005-06 without any new tax proposal. However, the civic body, which has an unflattering record of unfinished projects and unsuccessful proposals, failed to announce any concrete plans to solve the parking problem or to remove slum clusters from the VVIP area.

The budget has proposed to give a face-lift to all markets in the NDMC area, including Janpath, Connaught Place, Sarojini Nagar, Shankar Market and Gole Market besides sprucing up the Central Vista comprising Rajpath. The proposal for construction of around 200 new modern bus-Q-shelters, strengthening of roads, augmentation of water and sewer pipelines, upgradation of electricity sub-stations, construction of overhead pedestrian pathways and providing online municipal services through its portal have also been passed in the budget.

Presenting the annual budget, the NDMC Chairperson, Sindhushree Khullar, said the beautification of the Central Vista and upgradation of all major markets, including Connaught Place was their flagship projects. "We have set aside a corpus of Rs.5 crores for development of markets while the Central Vista beautification will be done along with other agencies like the Central Public Works Department and the Connaught Place redevelopment will be completed in assistance with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation by 2007," she informed.

In another initiative, the NDMC has decided to outsource the maintenance of roundabouts and public conveniences by engaging corporate houses and public sector undertakings. Making some radical changes in the education sector, the Council has decided against nursery and first standard children carrying school bags. The civic body has also decided to make girls education free from class 9th and 11th. It will also launch a school appraisal system - Avlokan - to identify the strengths of schools so that they could be disseminated more widely in other schools.

The NDMC budget has also proposed improvement in streetlighting mechanism besides installing more high-mast lights in the entire Lutyens' Delhi. Similarly, the Council has decided to adopt more modernized ways of laying roads giving more life to city roads. Funds have also been earmarked for improvement of hospitals.

Ms. Khullar informed that out of every Rs.100 of expenditure, Rs.13 will be spent on roads, public works and projects, Rs.14 on sanitation and health and Rs.11 on education while a major chuck of allocation of almost 50 per cent would to electricity supply. In the next fiscal, an expenditure of Rs.1034.49 crores was expected to be made against receipts of Rs.1037.02 crores.

On the implementation of Unit Area Method regime for property tax collection in Luytens' Delhi, the NDMC Chairperson said the civic body was studying the impact of the new tax system on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and it was only after going through all the aspects of the new system and the MCD experience with it, the NDMC would decide on the issue. "We are preparing a position paper suggesting a modified form of UAM for consideration of the Council by June-July. The profile of properties in the NDMC area was very different from the rest of the Capital so we need some time to discuss the issue before making any decision on it" she asserted.

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