The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Thursday passed a proposal raising the allowance the councillors get for attending each meeting from Rs 300 to Rs 25,000.
“For attending up to four meetings every month, all MCD councillors will get an allowance of Rs 25,000 per meeting. This allowance will work as an operational cost that councillors need to run their offices and to work for the betterment of the citizens… we are proposing this after looking into the legal and structural matters involved,” MCD Mayor Shelly Oberoi said.
The proposal will now be forwarded to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena.
Even as the mayor defended the move, Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which boycotted the House meeting since it clashed with Raksha Bandhan, expressed its disapproval.
“It is shocking that once in power, at any level, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) first effort is to give a financial boon to its members…,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said in his statement to the press.
The last time meeting allowance was increased for councillors was in 2004, when, with the Congress at the helm, the allowance was doubled — from Rs 150 to Rs 300.
On Thursday, nine of the 10 agendas of meeting were approved.
Row over session on Raksha Bandhan
With the session being called on Raksha Bandhan, the BJP and the Congress made common cause in condemning the ruling AAP for the decision. While the BJP accused the AAP of being “anti-Hindu,” Congress councillors present at the meeting said the session should not have been held on the festival. For its part, the AAP asked why the meeting could not be held the day schools and government offices were open.
“AAP leaders have been trying to run the corporation in an arbitrary manner…,” Delhi BJP general secretary Kamaljeet Sehrawat said while addressing the media. BJP’s Raja Iqbal Singh, leader of the opposition in the MCD, accused the mayor of “being dogmatic”.
During the house meeting, AAP’s Mukesh Goel said, “MCD officials are working today, schools are open, and so are government offices. Why should we abstain from holding a meeting?”
He further said, “AAP members also have Raksha Bandhan; the BJP is acting like they’re the only ones who celebrate the festival. The citizens have elected us and it is our responsibility to fulfill our duties towards those who we represent even during festivals.” Said Mayor Oberoi: “We
are public representatives, we should celebrate festivals but not run away from responsibilities.”
However, Congress councillors present at the meeting backed the BJP. “The meeting should not have been held on the festival
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of Rakhi,” said Naziya Danish; shortly after, Congress and AAP councillors clashed over the issue.
On agendas being approved in the meeting in the absence of an opposition, Delhi BJP media head Praveen Kapoor said, “They want to conduct corporation meetings the way they run the Assembly — by keeping the opposition out.”
The meeting approved the MCD’s plan to provide 23 door-to-door civic services such as birth certificates, death certificates, birth certificate modification, health trade licence application and renewal. Further, the formation of an 11-member committee for Hardayal Library and a 10% tax increase on dog registrations was also approved.
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