Apologise to Delhiites for calling them thieves: Durgesh Pathak

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday accused Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena of calling Delhiites "thieves" and demanded an apology for asking people to pay taxes to the civic body "honestly".

It asked the lieutenant governor to stop behaving like "a BJP worker and abusing Delhiites".

The party's reaction came a day after Saxena in a tweet said the past financial mismanagement and non-payment of "any property tax" by 75 per cent residents of the city made the municipal corporation of Delhi "go in red", and asked them to pay their dues honestly to make the civic body financially stable.

"It's a black day in the history of Delhi. The LG called people of Delhi thieves," AAP leader Durgesh Pathak said at a press conference.

He dubbed Saxena's remarks "very irresponsible" and said the Delhi government's budget under Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal increased from Rs 25,000 crore in 2015 to Rs 70,000 crore at present because Delhites pay their taxes honestly.

The municipal corporation is facing a financial crisis today, not because of any dishonesty on the part of Delhiites in payment of taxes but the BJP's corrupt regime in the civic body," Pathak, the newly elected Rajinder Nagar MLA, alleged.

"By the grace of God, you (LG) are sitting in a very responsible position. Delhites only want cleanliness. There is no problem in paying taxes," Pathak said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena said DDA owns one of the costliest and largest chunk of real estate in the world, but "mismanagement" has led to its liabilities exceeding Rs 10,000 crore.

The Lt Governor flagged this in a post on his official Twitter handle.

Saxena also invited suggestions from the people and expressed his resolve to "make DDA viable".