The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has recorded a revenue of Rs 2,417 crore in the financial year 2022-23, reflecting an increase of approximately Rs 400 crore compared to the previous fiscal year, marking the highest revenue in the history of the corporation through property tax.

It was stated by MCD Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti in his Budget speech while presenting the Revised Budget Estimates 2023-24 and Budget Estimates 2024-25 in the Special Budget Meeting of the House at the civic body’s headquarters on Saturday.

The MCD Commissioner, while presenting the Revised Budget Estimates 2023-24 and Budget Estimates 2024-25 in the Special Budget Meeting, said to enhance property tax revenue and ensure precise calculations, the Corporation has initiated a real-time geo-tagging process.

He said for promoting developmental activities, a provision in Sahbhagita scheme entails providing a 5 per cent additional incentive to educational institutions with a land area exceeding 10 acres, after they deposit 100 per cent of the property tax.

The MCD Commissioner informed a pilot project implementing an Artificial Intelligence-based system in Preet Vihar, East Patel Nagar, and Kotla Mubarakpur wards, aims to identify and enhance civic services through artificial intelligence.

He further informed that construction of school buildings in various areas, including Indira Park, Vishnu Garden, Paschim Puri, Madipur JJ Colony, Prem Nagar, Bawana, Mukundpur, and Saraswati Vihar has been successfully completed.

He said notable progress is underway in constructing approximately 20 school buildings in areas like Punjabi Bagh, and Paschim Vihar, in West zone, Ibrahimpur, Wazirabad Village, GTB Nagar in Civil Lines zone, and Mangolpuri in Rohini zone.

The MCD Commissioner further said construction of multi-level parking facilities is completed for 246 cars in Lajpat Nagar, 136 cars in Hauz Khas, 56 cars in Adchini Village, 236 in Subhash Nagar, and 86 cars in Nizamuddin Basti.

He informed that construction of multi-level parking facilities is underway in Punjabi Bagh for 225 cars, GK-I market for 399 cars, Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar for 81 cars, Shiva Market for 500 cars, Gandhi Maidan for 2338 cars, Qutub Road for 174 cars, Nigam Bodh for 95 cars, and Bagh Diwar Market, Fatehpuri, for 196 cars. These will be completed in this financial year.

The MCD Commissioner further informed that  the civic body has successfully processed approximately 10.2 million metric tons of waste across three landfill sites by November 2023, using trommel machines.

He said a waste-to-energy plant with a capacity of 3600 TPD in Narela-Bawana and an expansion of capacity in Okhla and Tehkhand waste-to-energy plants are planned for implementation.

The budget of the officers was presented on Saturday in the MCD’s House by the Commissioner. But the real budget of the people of Delhi will come in the first week of February. For this, Aam Aadmi Party councilors will continuously communicate with citizens.

Along with this, meetings will be held with RWAs and Market Associations. Based on the suggestions of the citizens, the public budget will be prepared, which will be presented in the House by Leader of the House Mukesh Goyal.

Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi said that people’s dialogue in Delhi will start from next week. This dialogue process will continue till the end of January 2024. Under this, door-to-door communication will be done with the people. Meetings will be held with the market association in the markets and RWAs in the society. Similarly, the sarpanches of the villages will be consulted for suggestions.

After this, the budget for 2024-25 will be prepared based on everyone’s opinion and advice. The special thing is that this budget will be completely prepared by the public.

She said that the budget cannot be prepared behind closed doors to solve the problems of the people of Delhi. No one can make the real budget of Delhi better than the people of Delhi. In such a situation, the budget will be prepared with the suggestions of the people of Delhi. This budget will not be of officers and leaders, but of the general public. Every problem of the citizens will be solved . It will not be an imposed budget.

Dr Oberoi said that the budget prepared by the public will be presented to the Leader of the House in the first week of February. Before this, there will be a round of discussions on it. The budget presented in the House today is as per tradition. But the real budget will come only in February.