Property tax will not be increased: East Delhi’s mayor
Bhagat, who will be heading a corporation reeling under a severe financial crisis and has a budget deficit of more than R 2,000 crore, pitched for the unification of the three civic bodies.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor from Geeta Colony Neema Bhagat was on Monday coronated as East Delhi’s mayor. All the mayors in the three corporations are from the BJP.
Soon after taking charge, Bhagat said the proposed hike in property tax rates for the year 2017-18 would be rolled back and corporation workers would collect garbage packets outside homes between 8 and 11 am every day.
The East Corporation had decided to increase property tax in its budget for 2017-18.
Bhagat, who will be heading a corporation reeling under a severe financial crisis and has a budget deficit of more than R 2,000 crore, pitched for the unification of the three civic bodies.
“I will appeal to the Centre to help the east corporation by unifying the three corporations. South is financially well-off and has a budget surplus so if the three corporations are unified it will be good for east civic body,” she said.
BJP’s Patparganj councillor Bipin Bihari Singh was elected deputy mayor.
Bhagat, who was also a councillor in the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2007, took oath along with 62 other councillors.
DRAMA OUTSIDE HOUSE
A faction of the East Delhi workers’ union led by president Sanjay Gehlot protested outside the house during the oath-taking ceremony by dumping garbage.
The workers were demanding timely salaries, pending arrears and pension for retired sanitation workers.
The strike was called off after Bhagat intervened.
Gehlot said, “We were assured by the mayor that she will appeal to the centre for financial help. So we are ending the strike.”
East Delhi has seen five strikes in past three years by corporation workers over salary.
“I will sit with the leaders of sanitation workers and understand their problems in detail. We are with them and we will try to ensure that they do not face salary problems this year,” the new EDMC mayor said.
