MCD’s engineering landfill site work expected to be completed by Apr 2023: Budget

A piece of land in south Delhi’s Tehkhand area has been allocated to the MCD for an engineering landfill site and the project is expected to be completed by April 2023, officials said on Tuesday.

The civic body’s budget was presented by Municipal Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti to its Special Officer a few days ago, and a copy of the budget speech was shared by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) authorities.

Delhi has three sanitary landfill sites located at Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa. This proposed “engineering landfill site” will be city’s first such site, they said.

In an engineering landfill site, the soil is first scientifically prepared so that the leachate does not percolate into the soil, which is not the case in a conventional landfill site, a former senior official of the MCD said.

A piece of land measuring 47.346 acres has been allocated by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for a landfill site in Tehkhand area near Okhla, out of which 32.346 acres will be used for setting up an engineering landfill site, work of which is expected to be completed by April 2023, reads the budget speech.

The commissioner had presented the MCD budget, which included the revised budget estimate for year 2022-23 and budget estimate for 2023-24, on December 8.

The current three landfill sites in Delhi are spread over an area of 202 acres in total, according to the speech.

In the budget, the commissioner also said that CCTV cameras have been installed at 570 school locations, and proposals have been sent for other schools.

According to the MCD, the revised budget estimates for 2022-22 stands at Rs 14,80,429 lakh (expenditure), while the budget estimate for 2023-24 stands at Rs 16,02,355 lakh (expenditure).

The budget also mentioned that from July 15, a uniform property tax policy for areas under the jurisdiction of the MCD came into effect, after the three corporations — NDMC, SDMC and EDMC — were merged into a single civic body with effect from May 2022.

The trifurcation was done in 2012.

After uniform property tax policy, there is no proposed change in the rates of property tax in the budget for 2023-24, it said.

The property tax collected in 2021-22 was Rs 2037.60 crore for the three corporations. In 2022-23, the collection of the unified MCD till November 15 stands at 1387.37 crore, while the figure for the corresponding period in the previous year was 1,227.02 crore.

Thus this year, for this period, the MCD has collected Rs 160.35 crore compared to the figures last year, according to the speech.

Also, 1.5 lakh plants along with flower pots are planed to be bought in view of the G20 meetings, the budget added.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor, in a statement has said that the municipal budget “stresses on increased generation of internal revenue” and claimed that it is a “reflection of the seeds sown by the BJP’s leadership” during the last five years when it ruled the MCD.

Implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for staff salary and pension payment too needs to be done soon, he said.

(With PTI inputs)

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