Govt indulging in politics, holding back dues: MCDs

Mayors of the three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled municipal corporations on Monday accused the Delhi government of holding back dues running into several hundred crores and instead indulging in politics over the issue.

The Mayors, in a joint press conference, presented the details of dues to be paid by the Delhi government to the civic bodies and alleged that the government was not sorting out the issue despite accepting that the MCDs were facing financial crisis.

Referring to a recent meeting between the three mayors and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Mayor Subhash Arya said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was not interested in resolving the issue. “Before the meeting with Mayors, the government released figures of its payments to MCDs to media, which indicate how it was doing politics over the issue,” said Arya, adding that government owed Rs 400 crore to the SDMC.

“It is for the first time that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accepted financial crisis faced by the municipal corporations,” North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) Mayor Ravinder Gupta said claiming that the Delhi government owed around Rs 1,800 crore to the civic body, which included Rs 600 crore dues on discoms.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation  (EDMC) Mayor Harsh Malhotra, too, claimed that the civic body’s dues over the Delhi government totalled to Rs 1,000 crore, which included municipal reforms funds worth Rs 300 crore, Rs 400 crore of employees dues and Rs 200 crore dues of contractors.

“If the government is honest, it should sit with the MCDs and clear the issue by taking help of chartered accountants and other financial experts,” Arya said.

Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay while accusing Chief Minister Kejriwal of playing “petty” politics on the fund issue, demanded him to issue orders for payment of MCD dues and table the report of Fourth Finance Commission before Delhi Assembly.

On Sunday, sanitation workers of the three MCDs had called off their strike after the Kejriwal government agreed to meet some of their demands.