Aam Aadmi Party councillors huddled around Mayor Shelly Oberoi during the MCD budget session on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House on Thursday passed a budget with proposals for expenditure of ₹16,683 crore for 2024-25, amid a ruckus as Opposition BJP councillors accused Mayor Shelly Oberoi of corruption and protested the increase in her discretionary funds.
The estimates were passed without the Leader of House, Mukesh Goel, completing his budget speech. AAP councillors guarded the Mayor’s dais as BJP councillors raised slogans.
This was AAP’s maiden budget in the civic body after it came to power in the MCD elections in December 2022.
Last year’s budget was presented by a special officer as the party assumed charge only in late February due to the delay in election of the Mayor.
The budget was presented days after the MCD House passed a resolution, increasing the Mayor’s discretionary spending limit to ₹500 crore from ₹10 crore, which was called “unconstitutional” by the BJP.
The move came in the absence of the MCD’s Standing Committee, whose constitution has been pending for more than a year now, stalling several projects as the panel is the main financial decision-making arm of the civic body.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Goel dedicated the budget to people, saying it focuses on infrastructure building.
He said the MCD is expected to earn ₹15,686.99 crore next fiscal.
The Mayor said the MCD will be spending ₹1,000 crore for the maintenance of roads. She said ₹400 crore has been kept for garbage management in the national capital.
‘L-G should intervene’
Later, BJP councillors led by the Leader of the Opposition in the MCD, Raja Iqbal Singh, submitted a memorandum to Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena, seeking his intervention over the hike in discretionary funds to the Mayor.
The BJP leaders said increasing the funds at the Mayor’s disposal after slashing funding to ward committees was unconstitutional. No one should be allowed to wield this much financial power, a BJP leader said. The party also accused AAP of “attempts to loot” the MCD through unfair means.