by THO
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Wednesday announced that all properties under its jurisdiction will be geo-tagged in the 2024-25 financial year for ease in collecting property tax.
The exercise will mandate the uploading the photographs of properties, which users can also do themselves, through a mobile app or through the NDMC website, the council added.
Read here: NDMC extends doubling of parking fees to privately managed sites
The announcement was among a slew of proposals that NDMC made in its budget estimates for 2024-25, pegged at ₹5,070 crore — the first time that the estimate has crossed the ₹5,000-crore mark.
The council recorded a surplus of over ₹300 crores in the financial year 2022-23.
“In our budget for 2024-25, the total expenditure is more than our revised estimate figures for the current year. The receipts are also higher than that of the revised estimate, leading us with a surplus — a trend maintained by NDMC for the last number of years,” NDMC chairman Amit Yadav said in his budget speech, attributing the increase in expenditure to a rise in purchase power prices and the payment of salary and appointments of 4,400 new employees.
Yadav said the increase in receipts was on account of the collection of property tax and estate dues, adding that the NDMC budget had made inroads on 15 out of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) prescribed for municipal bodies worldwide by the United Nations in 2015.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), earlier this month, made geo-tagging of all properties mandatory to avail property tax exemption.
During his budget speech, Yadav announced the creation of an “innovation fund” in which money will be put to test new innovations and technology.
“NDMC has created an innovation fund, to facilitate new and pioneering efforts and the infusion of new technology. Now, the modalities for it have been laid down by constitution of a panel to consider such projects. The first such project is a bio-remediation based innovative hybrid technology, which has been taken up to clean a partial open portion of Kushak nallah from 11 Murti, Sardar Patel Marg to Kemal Ataturk Marg across a 2km length,” said Yadav.
The civic body also announced that it had launched the “One Day One Road” programme, under which one road under NDMC’s jurisdiction will be taken up for intensive cleaning and washing every day. “This will involve cleaning the trees and pavements too. We believe each NDMC road will be completed in a three-month cycle, after which we will be able to target the first road again,” Yadav said.
Read here: NDMC plans revamp of Shivaji Stadium terminus in Delhi
NDMC said funds to the tune of ₹556 crore will also be released by the housing and urban affairs ministry to rehabilitate its old sewerage network.
The budget also includes funds to lay down a new synthetic rubber track at Sanjay Park along with funds to provide tablets to students of classes 9-12 at NDMC schools, funds to create an intensive care unit and blood storage unit at the Charak Palika Hospital, and funds to procure electrical mechanised road sweepers to clean bylanes.
