No grant-in-aid provided by Centre to civic bodies: AAP

New Delhi: The AAP government Tuesday claimed that no grant-in-aid for local bodies in Delhi were provided by the BJP-led Centre and that it was "misleading" the people on the issue.

Tweeting a party pamphlet detailing funds provided to municipal corporations by his government, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought a reply from the BJP on the issue.

Delhi BJP retaliated saying that the AAP government has "failed" to provide funds to the municipal corporations as per the 3rd Delhi Finance Commission (DFC) recommendations.

"Centre is misleading on the issue of funds provided to the Delhi government. Delhi is being mistreated by the Centre and the grant-in-aid for the local bodies are not being provided which would total Rs 4,087 crore as per the 2011 Census," the AAP government said in a statement.

It also claimed that the Centre has "rejected" its "repeated requests" for implementation of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission's recommendations.

The ruling AAP and the BJP have been sparring over the funds issue amid the continuing strike by sanitation workers of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation(EDMC) since September 12.

"To dispel any misinformation and to counter false claims of the BJP's central government and MCDs, the Delhi government is once again placing in public domain the entire facts related to funds released by the Centre and the truth of funding pattern for Delhi," AAP government said in the statement.

AAP leaders said a campaign will be launched in EDMC areas tomorrow to "expose lies" of the BJP over the funds issue. "Release of funds by the Delhi government (to local bodies) is intrinsically intertwined with allocations to be made to Delhi by the Central government," the AAP government said.

Recently, the Delhi government agreed to release Rs 500 crore to BJP ruled corporations in Delhi in view of the strike by EDMC sanitation workers.

It alleged that "discriminatory and unfair treatment" towards Delhi and its people in terms of its "fair share" in taxes collected by the Centre and grants-in-aid, giving data of past many years.

"The current practice and manner of sharing of resources followed by the Centre unfairly deprives the Delhi government of its rightful share from the divisible pool of central taxes, which significantly affects its developmental budget and ability to meet the needs and aspirations of its ever growing population," it said.

For the current year, the Delhi government was allocated Rs 325 crore as 'central assistance'.