New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday alleged that officials of the BJP-led municipal corporations have been working to bring CSR fund for a smart classroom project of an NGO reportedly run by people close to the party's city unit chief, in a "novel way of indulging in corruption".
Delhi has three municipal corporations and according to a new legislation, the city would soon get a new, single civic body.
There was no immediate reaction by the city BJP or its chief Adesh Gupta. Both the ruling AAP in Delhi and the BJP, which has been controlling the civic bodies for over a decade, have been trading charges ever since the Centre had brought in the proposal to merge the three corporations ahead the scheduled civic polls this year.
"We know about CSR fund being used in conjunction with an NGO...this is a novel way of indulging in corruption by the municipal corporations. A team of officials, led by a deputy commissioner-rank officer, has been formed to raise funds trough CSR, and hand it over to an NGO, for a smart classroom project. This NGO is run by people close to BJP Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta," Sisodia alleged.
The deputy chief minister, however, did not specify if the project concerned a particular municipal corporation in the city. He also charged that in the MoU signed, it seems the NGO "doesn't really exist as such" and there are "no details" of its previous works.
"A new MCD will soon come up, and after the civic elections, it will be departure time for the BJP," he said. The erstwhile unified MCD was set up in 1958 and trifurcated into North Corporation, South Corporation and East Corporation in 2012.