- Created on Monday, 13 July 2015 13:51
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(Delhi CM-Chaired DUSIB's mooted office-Image Courtesy: delhishelterboard.in)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has the knack of kicking up controversies to hog limelight as tantrums-obsessed item boy of Indian Politics.
Mr Kejriwal has thus botched the legitimate case to pull Delhi out of governance chaos. It resulted from adoption of Union Territory (UT)-State hybrid model in 1993. The model has spawned nebulous, conflicting and multiple roles of different entities. The chaos got compounded with break-up of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) into three bodies in 2012.
Mr. Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) very well knew the challenges of governing Delhi under this hodge-podge system at the time of State polls. Notwithstanding the limited powers of CM, he still can get the best of this model and make his mark as a deft political administrator. He should have made a cogent case for streamlining governance instead of behaving like a street-smart sloganeer.
Mr. Kejriwal is virtually holding national capital to ransom by throwing tantrums to press his short-sighted demand for full statehood. This is nothing but abuse of the majority mandate. People gave AAP thumping victory to improve Delhi. They did not vote for AAP for arm-twisting the Centre and Parliament to gratify immediately its lust for power.
Before discussing a way-out of the chaos in Delhi, consider first Kejriwal team’s three latest stunts. These are:
1) Creating constitutional crisis by not making public the report of 4th Delhi Finance Commission (DFC) and by not taking a decisions on its recommendations. This, in effect, means financial starvation of three municipalities that recently impacted the already tottering sanitation and healthcare services.
2) Dishing out half-truths and distorting facts to project the Central Government particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a stumbling block in good governance of Delhi.
3) Mooting referendum in Delhi to press his dangerous demand for full statehood for Delhi, ignoring both constitutional norms and national interest.
Take the first stunt first. The unprecedented black-out of DFC report was recently followed by marshals forcibly ejecting BJP MLAs from the State Assembly. Their crime: Persisting with the demand for tabling of the report. It is perhaps first time in the world that law-makers have been thrown out of a legislature for demanding tabling of a constitutional report.
Under Article 243Y of the Indian Constitution, the Governor (Lieutenant Governor in case of Delhi) is required to constitute a Finance Commission to recommend distribution of revenue between the State and municipalities.
This Article says: “The Governor shall cause every recommendation made by the Commission under this article together with an explanatory memorandum as to the action taken thereon to be laid before the Legislature of the State.”
DFC’s recommendations are crucial for working of East, North and South MCDs. In its report submitted in 2013, DFC has given recommendations on distribution of tax revenue between the States and municipalities. It has also given its recommendations on the grants-in-aid to be provided to municipalities from the Consolidated Fund of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. DFC has also given several other suggestions to perk up NCT.
What right Mr. Kejriwal has got to trample citizens’ right to access a document that can improve their lives?
The delay in implementing recommendations relating to two other municipalities, New Delhi Municipal Committee (NMDC) and Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB), might not have immediate impact. This is because they are relatively better placed financially as compared to other municipalities.
UPA Government enacted a law to trifurcate MCD at the behest of Sheila Dikshit Government. The trifurcation became effective in March 2012. Congress took this gambit to break BJP’s grip over the MCD. It overlooked the huge cost of trifurcation. It ignored concerns that trifurcation would famish North & East zonal MCDs.
After BJP came to power at the Centre, the MCDs urged it undo the trifurcation blunder. Modi Government has, however, allowed the situation to drift. It does not appear to be interested in easing the politics-induced misery of citizens.
In April 2015, BJP MLAs formally urged LG to fulfill his constitutional obligations by ordering tabling of DFC report in the Assembly. It is unclear whether LG failed to goad Delhi Government to table the report along with the action taken report (ATR) on its recommendations.
LG, who has been heaped with umpteen insults by AAP Government, has remained silent on this subject. So has the Kejriwal Government. It remains to be seen what verdict the Delhi High Court gives in litigation over powers of LG and Kejriwal Government. The Constitution is, however, very clear on this count.
It says: “In the case of difference of opinion between the Lieutenant Governor and his Ministers on any matter, the Lieutenant Governor shall refer it to the
President for decision and act according to the decision given thereon by the President and pending such decision it shall be competent for the Lieutenant Governor in any case where the matter, in his opinion, is so urgent that it is necessary for him to take immediate action, to take such action or to give such direction in the matter as he deems necessary.”
Delhi has now become a victim of this conspiracy of silence over DFC report. The AAP-BJP politics of funding essential public services is impacting the fundamental rights of citizens. AAP Government’s denial of adequate funds to three MCDs recently resulted in non-payment of salaries to sanitation and healthcare staff for a few months. The sanitation workers were thus forced to go on strike, which led to massive pile-up of stinking municipal waste especially in East Delhi. The chaos is bound to recur in the coming months.
AAP Government expounded its confrontation approach on this issue in its release dated 24th March 2015. The release says: “As per Central Finance Commission, two grants were recommended for local bodies-Basic Grant and Performance Grant. Delhi was not included in the terms of reference of the Central Finance Commission therefore no grant is being received by the local bodies in NCT. Local bodies in our neighboring states like Haryana and Punjab are scheduled to receive more than Rs.600 crores each in the next financial year. Had the NCT of Delhi been included under terms of reference of Central Finance Commission, then local bodies of NCT of Delhi would become the recipient of similar amounts.”
As his wont to distort facts, Mr. Kejriwal later started making public noises that Centre owed Delhi Rs 600 crore but had not paid a paisa and yet his Government is paying from its coffers the salaries for MCD sanitation workers.
The fact is that 14th Central Finance Commission (CFC) has not made any provisions for municipalities for all union territories. AAP’s charge that Delhi has been discriminated thus does not hold water.
CFC, constituted under Article 280 of the Constitution, is empowered to consider only fiscal relationship between the States and the Centre. The Union territories are kept out of constitutional provisions relating CFC because they are governed directly by the Centre.
As put by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), “Delhi, being a Union Territory is not being covered under recommendations of the Central Finance Commission….Delhi only gets discretionary grants in lieu of State share of Union taxes and duties.”
These facts bring us to the second stunt mentioned in this column-Mr Kejriwal’s propensity to speak half-truths and distort facts.
Both CM and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia repeatedly harp on the fact that grant given to Delhi in lieu of States’ share of union taxes has remained frozen at Rs 325 crore per year since 2001-02.
As put by Mr. Sisodia, who holds Finance Portfolio, had 14th CFC’s recommendations been applied to Delhi, it would have received Rs 25000 crore as its share from Union taxes over the five-year award period beginning 2015.
This gives a distorted picture about Centre’s participation in development of national capital. AAP leaders don’t disclose the fact that the Centre gives Delhi financial support under different accounting heads.
Take the Union Budget for the current financial year. The Ministry of Urban Development, for instance, has earmarked Rs 1006.64 crore as additional equity investment in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). In addition to this, the Ministry has made a provision for reimbursing central taxes to DMRC as Rs 530.18 crore subordinate debt in 2015-16.
Similarly, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has provided for normal capital assistance of Rs 394.98 crore to Delhi in 2015-16. It also bears the huge capital and operational expenditure on Delhi Police.
According to MHA, the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD) is provided Central assistance for financing the Plan schemes. Additional Central Assistance for specific programmes like Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) are reflected under the respective accounts of concerned ministries. These ministerial investments apart, NMDC, DCB and Delhi Development Authority also invest lot of money every year for development and upkeep of infrastructure.
The crux of the matter is that these funds are not given directly to AAP Government. This limits Mr. Kejriwal’s power to splurge public money on vote bank politics.
Delhi has been the biggest beneficiary of Centre’s discretion. The Centre has been pumping thousands of crores every year into Delhi through different union ministries and their appendages. The infrastructure built during 2010 Commonwealth Games and 1982 Asiad is proof of that. Even a mentally challenged person would not hide this fact.
AAP’s another clever distortion to poison public’s mind against Modi Government is embedded in a riddle. It goes as: “Have you heard of a state govt that has to buy its own land at market rate?”
The implied lie in this poser is that Delhi is State, which it is not. It is open secret that States buy big chunks of land from farmers. Part of this land is sold or leased at concessional rates to Government schools or private schools. There have also been instances where States auction acquired land to private school developers.
Like States, DDA, which is an arm of the Union Government, has acquired land from farmers over the years. The public land inherited by Governments as Raj legacy has mostly been developed or is lying as wasteland or has been grabbed by slums as in Delhi.
Mr. Kejriwal, as Chairman of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), is a de facto slumlord of Delhi. Of the 728 Jhuggi Jhopri Bastis (slums) in Delhi, 78% are located on public land as disclosed by Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) last month.
CM has not disclosed this fact to the public. Nor has he prepared a blue-print for efficient utilization of slum land. Common sense suggests that scarce urban land can be used judiciously by building skyscrapers for slum dwellers. The resulting surplus area can be utilized for developing Government schools.
Any sincere CM would have a sleepless night after reading CAG’s latest report on Delhi’ s social, General and Economic Sectors that was released on 26th June 2015. It is an eye-opener on slum development scam that happened during Congress rule.
And yet social media-savvy CM has not tweeted on this or on other CAG reports presented last month in State Assembly. There is nothing in the public domain to show that Mr. Kejriwal has ordered probe into the irregularities mentioned by CAG in the working of DUSIB. A CM with a desire for good governance would use CAG reports as stepping stones for rejuvenation of his State/UT.
CAG has noted that DUSIB does not have a complete and reliable record of its properties. A whopping Rs 232.10 crore remains unrecovered from allottees of its properties. This sum as well as a few properties can certainly be utilized for developing schools and other public facilities.
Kejriwal selectively makes noises about fighting corruption. There is, however, nothing in the public domain to show whether he ordered a fast-track probe into an old case of Rs 19.44 crore embezzled from DUSIB in September 2010. CAG says Delhi Government’s crime branch is investigating the matter.
If CM can mention alleged 2002 CNG kits scam for further probe in a TV interview, he certainly can’t forget to mention embezzlement in his anti-corruption rhetoric.
Consider now AAP’s third stunt- proposal to organize referendum in Delhi on the subject of full statehood. It means asking for powers such as exercising control over prized Delhi land, Delhi police and municipalities.
The Constitution does not provide for referendum to decide on issues except in one unique situation. As is APP leaders wont to distort facts, this exception has misconstrued AAP leader Somnath Bharti. This ex-law minister of Delhi has been quoted by a daily as saying that the 44th amendment had a provision for referendum when it concerned larger public interest and he was sure that Delhi would overwhelmingly vote for statehood.
After 1975 Emergency, Janata Government incorporated this amendment in the Constitution to safeguard secularism, fair elections, fundamental rights and independence of the Judiciary.
According to the statement of objects and reasons for the amendment act, these core features of the Constitution can be suspended “only if they are approved by the people of India by a majority of votes at a referendum in which at least fifty one per cent of the electorate participate. Article 368 is being amended to ensure this.”
To the best of this columnist's knowledge, even this solitary referendum provision has not been made effective so far through a gazette notification.
Demand for full statehood turns blind to the fact India is a Union of States, all of which have implied stake in the national capital.
The Union Government at present accommodates the interests of all States in the National capital. It would not be able to perform this task once Delhi gets full statehood. To understand the implications of statehood from national perspective, consider a few hypothetical cases.
Assuming recurring water dispute between Haryana and Delhi turns ugly, Haryana CM would be at the mercy of Delhi CM, if decides to visit Delhi to meet PM. Assume the latter is vindictive, he might then provide slipshod security to former.
What is the guarantee that goons of ruling party in Delhi would not terrorize a CM of another such disputant State on the road?
What would hapless PM do if Delhi CM encourages migrants to set up a slum close to PM’s official residence? Imagine homeless people sleeping outside embassies to seek alms.
Imagine Delhi CM ordering traffic police to give first right of drive to three-wheelers on all lanes of roads as an electoral gambit to return to power. If Delhi CM can sit on Dharna near the ultimate seat of power of Union Government, he as CEO of a State can do anything to achieve his objectives.
If Delhi CM has the audacity to book Union Petroleum Minister in alleged corruption in gas pricing which is a pure Central subject, he as CEO of a full State can easily order arrest of PM on cooked-up charges of bribery!
Keeping in view all facts and such possible developments, Modi Government should hold dialogue with all political parties in national interest to amend the Constitution to make Delhi as fully fledged union territory like Chandigarh. The subject should also been considered at the Governing Council of NITI Aayog that has CMs as its members.
The Centre should transform Delhi State Assembly into a metropolitan council under which all civic service providing agencies should operate. This would streamline governance.
It goes without saying that metropolitan council’s policy decisions would require the Centre’s nod.
The proposed constitutional amendment should be made effective from the date of end of tenure of the Assembly. This amendment is required in national interest as well as to provide relief to citizens of Delhi.
Mr. Kejriwal should fulfill his ambition to function as CM of a State by winning elections in Bihar or in any other State. He can also project himself as prime ministerial prospect in the next Lok Sabha polls.
Published by taxindiaonline.com on 11th July2015