Mayors of three BJP-ruled municipal corporations on Wednesday turned down city Government’s Rs551 crore loan offer to pay salaries to striking workers of two of the municipal corporations —North and East.
“Kejriwal Government is providing conditional funds but it is not alms but a Constitutional right of the corporations under article 243. It is a political gimmick of AAP-led Delhi Government to trap the corporations into a debt as the CM is targetting 2017 municipal elections,” said EDMC Mayor Harsh Malhotra.
The mayors said corporations will accept money in terms of grant-in-aid instead of loan as these agencies are already burdened. The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced a loan of Rs551 crore for payment of salaries to striking workers of two municipal corporations and grant-in-aid of Rs142 crore to South municipal corporation.
“We will not take loan from the Delhi Government. We will only take it as a grant. Kejriwal Government is giving conditional funds to the corporations for disbursing salaries but it is a Constitutional right of the corporations and not a charity. We are ready for CBI enquiry against the corporation as demanded by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but an enquiry should also be conducted against the corrupt Delhi Government and its MlAs. AAP MlAs are corrupt and have been to jail as well,” said North municipal corporation Mayor Ravinder Gupta.
The mayors demanded the Delhi Government to release the funds as per the 3rd Finance Commission and implement the 4th DFC recommendations as any amount of loan granted will not provide a permanent solution.
South municipal corporation Mayor Subhash Arya said in the last financial year, the corporations were able to pay salaries on time by leasing out a part of Civic Centre building to the Income-Tax Department that generated a revenue of about Rs1,800 crore.
On the statement of CM that advertisement department of the corporations can earn ten times of revenue, Gupta said, “The Delhi Government is free to take over this department and should provide us five times more revenue.”
The strike has crippled functioning of hospitals and schools run by civic bodies, besides garbage disposal even as the Delhi Government continues to insist that it has already released the entire fund to the municipal bodies under non-plan head.
The contractors of the NDMC and the EDMC have also extended their support to the ongoing strike, threatening they will stop all ongoing works of the two municipal corporations from February 10. Thousands of agitators took out a protest march from the Civic Centre to Rajghat on Tuesday carrying begging bowls to draw attention to their demands.