New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) Delhi Mayor Mahesh Khichi on Friday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to remove Municipal Corporation of Delhi Commissioner Ashwani Kumar for, what he called, “arbitrary decisions”, a move that was described as ‘anarchist’ and ‘laughable’ by the BJP.
Khichi has sought the removal of the MCD chief over the latter’s decision to impose garbage user fee on property tax payers and hike commercial licence fee but the BJP said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) first attempted to run the Delhi government through anarchic and unconstitutional means, and it was now trying to replicate the same in the civic agency.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “The AAP government in Delhi used to clash with the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Secretary. Now that they are in power in the Municipal Corporation, they are in conflict with the Municipal Commissioner. First, they stalled development work in Delhi, and for the past two years, they have paralysed the Municipal Corporation.”
The Delhi BJP spokesperson stated that the user surcharge was implemented by the Municipal Commissioner with full knowledge of the Mayor. “However, once public opposition to it began, the blame is unfairly being placed on the Commissioner,” he said.
Earlier, addressing a joint press conference, Delhi AAP Convenor Saurabh Bharadwaj and Mayor Khichi, an AAP councillor, alleged that the civic agency’s commissioner had unilaterally taken the decisions on the introduction of the two new levies.
Kapoor remarked that the statement of Bharadwaj is laughable.
He added that Bharadwaj must answer if the Municipal Commissioner implemented the user surcharge without the Mayor’s approval, then why hasn’t the Mayor issued a written directive to withdraw it till date? And why does he not convene a special House session to pass a resolution to cancel it instead?
Bharadwaj told media persons that “the Mayor was not consulted by the Commissioner on decisions”.
He also alleged that the Commissioner was ignoring the elected regime in the civic agency at the behest of the BJP-led Central Government.
The MCD has raised by 15 per cent the fee paid by trade licence applicants and introduced a compulsory garbage user fee for both residential and commercial properties for waste collection.
Bharadwaj said the Commissioner had failed to implement the people-friendly decisions taken by the elected municipal House, dominated by the AAP, to waive off property tax of property measuring less than 100 square yards and reduce by half the tax on properties between 100-500 square yards.
“The decision taken by the MCD while passing the last Budget to regularise 12,000 contract employees has also not been implemented,” said the former Delhi Minister, alleging that the Commissioner was deliberately sitting over the files related to these decisions.
He alleged that the Commissioner was pushing the BJP’s agenda in the MCD.
Bharadwaj also hit out at Delhi BJP leaders for criticising the imposition of new levies by the MCD, alleging a conspiracy between the BJP and the Commissioner to implement the people-unfriendly decisions.
Mayor Khichi said the Commissioner had ignored the letters he had written to the latter to protest the imposition of the new levies.
“As it is, Delhi residents are overburdened with taxes and now they are imposing additional levies,” he said.
He alleged that ever since the BJP government came to power in Delhi, the citizens have been burdened with new taxes.
Khichi claimed the voters in the city have been cheated by the BJP, which, in place of reducing their cost of living, is imposing additional taxes.
–IANS
rch/uk
