Delhi is victim of step-motherly treatment' by Centre: Manish Sisodia

New Delhi/ Cambridge: Delhi is a victim of “step-motherly treatment” by the Centre, its Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has alleged and said that the federal government is confused if it should treat Delhi as a union territory or as a state.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has in the past accused the Centre of “disrupting an elected government” and creating hurdles in its functioning. It has also been demanding that the share in central taxes and duties for the city should be increased.

“Delhi is a victim of step-motherly treatment by the centre,” Sisodia said on Saturday during a panel discussion at Cambridge on “Cooperative and Competitive Federalism” at the annual India Conference organised by the prestigious Harvard University. Sisodia noted that this “step-motherly treatment” was also there during the previous governments at the Centre.

However, senior Haryana Cabinet Minister Captain Abhimanyu asserted that federalism has strengthened under the Narendra Modi government.

Implementation of GST Council is the best example of co-operative federalism in a highly complicated environment. “This is a great era of cooperative and competitive federalism,” Abhimanyu said.

Addressing the problem of air pollution, he said Delhi is another example of cooperative federalism and the states in and around the national capital need to cooperate on this issue.

Abhimanyu said the state governments have a thorough evaluation of investment proposals. “It’s not only ease of doing business, but as a government we consciously make efforts to reduce the cost of doing business,” he said.

GST has ended tax arbitrage, Sisodia said, adding that as a result states are coming out with other incentives to attract investment. “When it comes to Delhi, historically BJP and Congress governments have been treating Delhi step motherly,” he said.

The news coming out from West Bengal and Delhi needs to be answered on co-operative federalism. He accused the centre of favouring state ruled by the same parties. “On one hand centre says Delhi is a union territory, so we can’t be treated as a state. In such case gives us funds that we need for example for e-buses,” he said.