CM Rekha Gupta meets rural Delhi to seek inputs for upcoming budget | Latest News Delhi

Farmers’ representatives on Saturday met chief minister Rekha Gupta to demand tax exemptions, public sanitation, a solution to water logging on roads during monsoon, and better healthcare and education facilities, in the upcoming Delhi Budget, officials familiar said with the matter said. The suggestions were made during a meeting called by the CM to seek opinions of various groups of society.

Chaudhary Surender Solanki, chief of Sakal Panchayat Palam 360, a group of villagers, said they have demanded that the long pending house tax exemption in the Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora areas be soon announced, and the circle rate of land be increased to ₹5 crore per acre.

“We have also apprised the chief minister about the rural belt’s demand of providing free ownership rights to the heirs in case of ancestral properties in the rural belt, and those villagers’ lands were acquired by the Delhi Development Authority, they must be given alternative plots. The residents of the rural belt have also requested the chief minister to develop smart villages on the lines of smart cities in Delhi and also requested that revised land policy must be introduced,” said Solanki.

Delhi’s annual budget, which is likely to be tabled in the assembly in the last week of March, will have suggestions from farmers and the issues of the rural Delhi will be resolved soon, said chief minister Rekha Gupta after the interaction with the farmers’ representatives at the Delhi Secretariat on Saturday evening. She has held a series of public consultation to take feedback for the budget which is likely to be titled “Viksit Delhi” budget.

“Farmers play a crucial role not only as ‘annadaata’ but also in maintaining Delhi’s green environment…During the discussion, farmers raised several key concerns, including beautification of village ponds, use of gram sabha land, electricity connections for rural areas, expansion of Lal Dora and modern irrigation methods and access to central government schemes. The government will take necessary steps to address the concerns raised during the meeting,” Gupta said.

The budget session of the Delhi assembly is set to begin from March 24, and will continue till March 28. The annual budget of the Delhi government is scheduled to be presented on March 25. It will be the first budget of the BJP government which came to power in February.

Delhi has 357 villages across 11 revenue districts, and a large number of those located under New Delhi, South East Delhi, Central Delhi, South, East and West districts are urbanised while most of those located in North West and South West districts are rural.

Chaudhary Naresh, a farmer who met the CM on Saturday, said that the main problems in urbanised villages are of unclean sewer lines and drains, water supply issues, water logging during monsoon, lack of adequate government health care and education facilities.

Rao Tribhuvan Singh, another farmer part of the discussions, said that the key issues in rural villages are bad road infrastructure, dirty sewage lines, lack of sanitation, absence of public bus transport services, poor health care and school facilities with students having to travel long distances for education.