By IANS,
New Delhi: A tussle over 22 industrial estates in the capital has intensified with the Congress-controlled Delhi government insisting these be handed over to it by the BJP-ruled civic body as the president had assented to a law on this.
“The Delhi Industrial Development Operation And Maintenance Act was passed by the Delhi assembly in 2010 and has received the president’s assent. And the MCD has got no right to even talk about it. In fact, MCD is nowhere in the picture,” Delhi Labour and Industries Minister Ramakant Goswami told IANS.
The DSIIDC is the agency of the Delhi government for development and maintenance of infrastructure in all industrial estates, including those being maintained by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
In a recent meeting, the union home ministry had directed the MCD to hand over the 22 industrial estates to DSIIDC within three months, which the civic agency has been opposing.
Reacting to the statement of Delhi Mayor Rajini Abbi, who heads the MCD, that the agency will not hand over the industrial estates, Goswami said: “The mayor has not even a right to talk about the act as she has nothing do with it. Why are they (MCD) opposing the move when they cannot maintain these estates, which are in poor condition.”
Abbi had earlier said that the MCD will not let go of the industrial estates.
“First they took the Delhi Transport Corporation from us, then they took the Slum Department and the Delhi Jal Board. Now they are hell-bent on taking these estates which we maintain. Why don’t they dissolve the corporation if they want everything in their hands” an angry Abbi asked while speaking to IANS.
“How will we maintain these estates when will have no funds with us? They (Delhi government) never give us funds and then they talk of taking away these estates from us,” Abbi lamented.
This wasn’t so, Goswami asserted.
“Ever year, the Delhi government provides Rs.800 crore to the MCD. Where do these funds go,” Goswami wondered.