Delhi High Court raps govt for ‘sleeping over’ 4th Finance report

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The plea comes in the wake of the recent strike by the BJP ruled municipal corporation that led to massive amounts of garbage being dumped in east Delhi after sanitation workers said that they weren’t being paid. The strike had taken on political overtones with the BJP and AAP blaming each other for the issue.

The court said that it was “not convince”” by the short affidavit provided by the Delhi Government, as way of explanation for non implementation of the recommendations. It pointed out that the 4th finance commission report was submitted in 2013, while the PIL in the issue was filed in the matter in 2015. “You did not even move a little finger,” it said.

In the affidavit, the Delhi Government had said that in a cabinet meeting on June 25th, it was observed that the recommendations of the 4th finance commission “needed to be put through a consultative process” with the central government in order to ensure that the “devolution of powers and funds” can be worked out in “comprehensive manner” and that “a decision was taken to consult the Government of India and the local bodies to consider the recommendations of the fourth Finance Commission,” the affidavit said.

But the court also observed that the setting up of the 5th commission needed to be done “independently” every five years and that the government can’t wait for the acceptance or implementation of the previous commission’s findings before constituting the new body.

The Delhi Government had argued that the issue of payment of salary of employees of the municipal corporations was solved by a vacation bench of the high court, which had said that the civic bodies would inform in advance whenever there was fund shortage.

The court asked why the details of the funds were not mentioned in the latest affidavit and directed the government to file a comprehensive one.

It also made it clear that failure to file the affidavit by July 9 — the next date of hearing – would necessitate the presence of the secretary of the concerned department at court.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, Campaign for People Participation In Development Planning, for directions to Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to “immediately release adequate funds” to the three municipal bodies to enable them to perform their functions.