The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday challenged the BJP to explain how the party, in the three MCDs, has spent the money provided to them for payment of salaries of their employees by the Delhi government. It is a matter of extreme concern that the political leadership of the MCDs have, due to their corruption and incompetence, turned these civic agencies into dens of corruption, AAP alleged.
“The poor state of the MCDs in Delhi is purely due to the lackadaisical attitude of the elected leadership of the Municipal Corporations and the biased attitude of the Central government. The Delhi government has fulfilled its obligation as regard to the release of both plan and non-plan funds for the current financial year. Further, the Delhi government has already announced a moratorium on the Rs 6,000 crore which the three MCDs owe to it on account of loans given to them over the year. The government has also decided not to seek payment of interest on these loans till further orders,” said senior AAP leader Ashutosh.
“The MCD failed to give any satisfactory answer before the Delhi high court when it was asked to substantiate its claim on whether the Delhi government owes anything to it for the current financial year,” he added.
The position of funds released to the three Corporations against Revised Estimates proposed by Delhi government is 100 per cent and only for South Delhi Municipal Corporation 20 per cent is remaining which would be given in the next 10 days.
The education and health sector funds have also been released as per the plan. The government is committed to release arrears if any as per the norms without delay. It is relevant to note that the
Corporations are holding unspent balance of about Rs 300 crore under education and health sector.
“The state of fund crunch in MCDs is largely due to reasons pertaining to the Central government.
DDA refuses to abide by the law of the land and is yet to clear the property tax dues to the Municipal Corporations. The Corporations on the other hand are also not inclined to take steps towards realisation of their revenue potential,” said AAP leader Dilip Pandey.
Now that Corporations neither have the resources nor any plan or vision to generate resources to meet their committed liabilities it is primarily due to the absolute failure on the part of the elected leadership of the Municipal Corporations.