CIVIC BODIES HAVE MONEY TO PAY COUNCILLORS, NOT SALARIES: AAP

NEW DELHI: Alleging rampant corruption in the Bjp-ruled MCDS, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday said that the civic bodies have money to give to its councillors but not enough to pay the salaries of its employees, including doctors, teachers and sanitation workers.

The party also said the Delhi government doesn’t owe any money to the corporations, countering repeated claims by the three civic bodies that the state government owes ₹1300 crore to them.

“Delhi government doesn’t owe even a single penny to the municipal corporations. Instead they owe ₹6,500 crore to the government, which they took in the form of a loan,” said AAP MLA and the party’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj during a press conference on Monday.

Bhardwaj alleged that on one hand, the cash-strapped civic bodies say that they don’t have enough money to pay salaries to their employees but, on the other hand, they have money to pay their councillors. “The north corporation alone owes ₹2,407 crore to the Delhi government; yet it has decided to give ₹50 lakh to its councillors... The municipal corporations do not pay salaries... so that the employees go on strikes and they (civic body) can extort money from the Delhi government,” he said.

Repeated calls and messages to the mayor of north corporation seeking comment went unanswered.

Refuting the allegations, mayor of east Delhi municipal corporation Shyam Sundar Agrawal said the Delhi government was lying, adding that it owes the three civic bodies a total of ₹1,300 crore under the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission.

“The AAP leaders should sit across the table and debate with us over how much money they owe to the civic bodies, which have been struggling to pay their employees as well as carry out development works. They owe us funds that need to be released under the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission. Even the Delhi high court has asked the Delhi government to release funds due to the corporations,” said Agrawal.