By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday pulled up the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) over charges that some of its members were drawing allowances far exceeding their allotted amount.
“NDMC cannot make resolutions to fix facilities for themselves. They have to be governed by a statutory body,” the court observed.
The court’s remarks were made while hearing a public interest litigation filed by lawyer Monica Arora, who has alleged that two of the 11-member Council were drawing more than Rs.200,000 per month as allowances, which is not permissible under any act of the NDMC.
“As per rule, no member of NDMC is allowed to get more than Rs.3,000 per month as allowances but members are misusing funds, which is illegal,” argued Arora.
The two members are allegedly getting facilities that include Rs.50,000 for rent, a car, driver and allowances for petrol.
Refuting these allegations, senior counsel for NDMC Vikas Singh contended: “Facilities taken by the administration is after an order from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the faithful discharge of their duties and responsibilities.”
However, the arguments remained inconclusive and Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Murlidhar posted the matter for hearing May 26.
The court, during an earlier hearing, had imposed a Rs.5,000 fine on NDMC for its failure to file its reply over the allegations, despite issuing several notices to them.
The court held that by no stretch of imagination did allowances mean house, staff, car, office and petrol and that allowances were supposed to be only cash.