Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of reducing municipal corporations to “deplorable” conditions due to the rampant "corruption and failures", Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said that the civic bodies have failed in even ensuring basic amenities to the citizens, despite the adequate financial support provided by the Delhi Government.
Criticising the BJP, Sisodia said, “Maintaining sanitation is the primary responsibility of the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations. They have not developed even a single ‘model ward’ and nobody knows where the money earmarked for the MCDs is going.”
“MCDs do not have any money to pay salaries to their employees. The court has ordered them to sell assets to pay the staff, which is shameful and insulting. It is time for the BJP to take full responsibility for the sheer mess it has put the MCDs into. The BJP needs to accept that they have completely failed in managing the corporations and the only solution is for the citizens of Delhi to vote the BJP out,” he said.
However, responding to the deputy CM, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor has said that the AAP leaders were in the habit of issuing cooked-up statements.
“The Delhi High Court never directed the North Corporation to sell assets to pay salaries and pension to its employees. The financial crunch being faced by the corporations is only because the Delhi Government has not released the Rs 13,000 crore due towards them,” he claimed.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated into north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations — NDMC, SDMC and EDMC — in 2012. All three are in the control of the BJP for over a decade now.