Terming as “justifiable” the government’s move to impose five per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on CNG, the fuel on which the public transport runs in the city, chief minister Sheila Dikshit has ruled out any rollback of the increased price of the fuel. “We will not withdraw the VAT on CNG. We have levied only five per cent VAT on the fuel and that is justifiable,” Ms Dikshit said.

The chief minister had, while presenting the Budget on May 28, proposed to impose the VAT on compressed natural gas (CNG) to generate around `110 crores in revenue while withdrawing VAT on petrol after a nation-wide hike in its price. The Delhi Assembly will take up the Budget for approval on Monday.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has gone underground again, but this time it is to provide an efficient parking system at the Delhi High Court premises.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court Judge D. K. Jain and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurated an automated underground multi-level car parking with a capacity to hold 1,467 cars. Visitors to the Delhi High Court premises can now avail of the facility. The parking lot has five levels -- the first basement is the entry and exit level where the car owner leaves his vehicle in one of the 20 lifts available.

Farmers, whose land was acquired at a meagre Rs.

All vehicles will once again be allowed to ply on the lanes reserved for buses on the city’s BRT corridor after the Delhi high court’s directive to the government on Wednesday calling for opening the stretch to all vehicles for smooth flow of traffic.

The court asked the city government to continue with this arrangement made by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) during the experimental trial run of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand from May 12 to May 23 till it gives a final order on the issue

Protesting against the proposed imposition of 5 per cent Value Added Tax on Compressed Natural Gas announced by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the Delhi Budget 2012-13, the Bharatiya Janata Party members walked out of the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday.

As soon as Question Hour began, Leader of Opposition V. K. Malhotra raised the issue of an alleged “leak” of the Budget papers and charged that some television channels had shown Delhi Government officials reading from the document while the Chief Minister was still presenting it in the House.

From “development with a human face” in the 12th Five Year Plan, Delhi will be moving towards becoming a “good, productive and caring city” in the 12th Plan that begins in 2012, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said as she presented the Delhi Budget for 2012-13 in the Assembly on Monday.

Noting that in the years ahead special attention will be paid to the qualitative improvements of the vastly upgraded infrastructure, Ms. Dikshit said the city will also fulfil the needs of the productive and creative citizenry by looking at their training, skill up-gradation and financing needs.

The first allotment of the 500 houses for the Economically Weaker Section, constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, will start soon and continue till all the nearly-15,000 houses had have allotted to jhuggi-jhopri cluster households.

Apart from this, the Delhi Government said in the Budget, presented by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, that it had invested Rs.2,597 crore till March 2012 in regularisation of unauthorised colonies for providing basic civic services therein.

Living in the resettlement colony of Sawda Ghevra with no amenities and poor hygienic conditions, over 25,000 people will finally have access to drinking water if the Delhi Jal Board's proposal to set up a decentralised water treatment plant takes shape.

To take water to the areas that are currently not supplied piped water like Sawda Ghevra, the DJB wants decentralised drinking water plants that can help meet the demands of these areas.

With emphasis in the 12th Plan on the social services sectors for achieving more inclusive growth, the Delhi Budget has allocated Rs.9,796 crore or 65 per cent of the total Plan outlay of Rs.15,000 for 2012-13 on this sector.

The money, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said, will be used for various social welfare schemes. These include the Dilli Annashree Scheme, under which two lakh vulnerable households would be provided food subsidy of Rs.600 per month as cash transfer. The amount would be paid to the senior-most female member of each household.

Announcing the proposal, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said her government would incur a burden of nearly Rs.140 crore in revenue on this count. However, it would be more than covering up for this loss by imposing five per cent VAT on Compressed Natural Gas, on which the entire public transport in the city now runs. The move is expected to result in a hike in auto-rickshaw and taxi fares.

In her budget speech, Ms. Dikshit delved on how since the introduction of the VAT system in Delhi, CNG has always been exempted from its purview “though the same should be taxed @ 12.5 per cent as per the recommendations of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers.”