Gave Rs 770 crore to EDMC in 6 months: Delhi government

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Pointing out that city residents were unnecessarily suffering due to the sanitation workers' strike, the Delhi government on Friday said it had released Rs 770 crore to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) alone in less than six months in the current fiscal.

"It is an extremely serious matter that despite the Delhi government releasing Rs 770 crore to the East MCD alone... the sanitation workers are on strike for non-payment of their salaries whereas the area residents are suffering without any fault," a Delhi government statement said.

The Delhi government said that it had come across certain information in the public domain on the financial condition of the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi (ruled by the BJP) and the grants from the central government for the purpose.

"To dispel any misinformation and counter false claims of the BJP-led central government and the MCDs, the Delhi government is placing in the public domain the entire facts related to funds released by the Centre and the truth of funding pattern for Delhi."

It also termed the Centre's conduct in the matter "unfortunate" and "unfair" towards Delhi and its people.

The government said that as per data of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Delhi's contribution to the central pool of taxes has gone up from Rs 54,705 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 1,08,882.50 crore in 2016-17.

"However, there has been no increase in the assistance received by Delhi from the government of India. It remains Rs 325 crore since 2001-2002. The central aid for Assam, Goa, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh had increased significantly.

"Unfair treatment has been meted out to the Delhi government and residents of Delhi in the matter of allocation of its fair share of proceeds of taxes collected by the Union government as also owing to the non-allocation of the Grants-in-aid to local bodies," it said.

The Delhi government said that the "current practice and manner of sharing of resources followed by the Centre unfairly deprives the Delhi government of its rightful share in the divisible pool of central taxes".

The EDMC sanitation workers on Thursday protested near Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence to demand pending salaries and pension and pending arrears.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)