Sisodia demands Rs 2,000 crore as grant for civic bodies

NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday presented recommendations of the city government for the union budget at a pre-budget consultation with union Fince Minister Arun Jaitley and demanded at least Rs.2,000 crore as grant for the capital’s civic bodies.

“Delhi should get at least Rs 2, 000 crore as basic and performance grants for local bodies similar to that of neighbouring states. This will facilitate in tiding over the fincial crisis in the East and North municipal corporations,” said Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s fince minister. Highlighting the peculiar problems faced by the capital, Sisodia said the city government in active collaboration with citizens conducted the odd-even vehicle restriction scheme for the first time in the country, in an effort to control air pollution. He said that to augment public transport in Delhi, a special package of Rs 4, 000 crore from the central government was required to purchase 5,000 additiol buses, which will encourage citizens to shift to public transport.

Sisodia said Delhi was being deprived of resources required for investment. “Land is a valuable resource, which we don’t have. We don’t control land use,” he said. “We don’t have a share in central taxes. Our tax base is rrow because 87.5 percent of gross state domestic product is from services.” (IANS)

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