The 49-day tumultuous run of the Arvind Kejriwal Government in Delhi has deprived the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) of over Rs 550 crore under various budgetary heads.
The money which was supposed to be transferred by December-January is yet to come into the account of the civic body prompting the BJP to allege that the same amount was doled out to private discoms as power subsidy dues. With the General Elections round the corner, the BJP legislators on Monday sought to meet the lieutenant-Governor over the issue and demand the transfer of money. The payment has been delayed since last year when the Sheila Dikshit Government was ruling over followed by the Kejriwal Government in December. Notably, the Government passed the Appropriation Bill for the power subsidy of Rs 372 crore on Friday just minutes before quitting.
The issue was raised by BJP councillor and former chairman of the Standing Committee, Yogendra Chandolia in a meeting with the NMC on Monday. He alleged Rs 563 crore meant for development work in the Corporation has not been given as yet. Of this amount, Rs 323 crore is under the non-planned head while Rs 190.2 crore is under the planned head. Another amount of Rs 50 crore was to be transferred to the civic body as transfer duty but the same has been delayed. The BJP alleged that the payment was deliberately being delayed so as to prevent the ruling party in the Corporation from carrying out development work and sully its image ahead of the crucial lok Sabha polls. Officials, however, expressed hope that the Corporation would soon get the money as the Government had passed the budget for the year before quitting.
“The amount of Rs 563 crore should have been transferred to the accounts of NMC by January. But the process has been delayed due to Government inaction. A number of development work, including those related to education and health have been affected. The Corporation has no money to purchase medicines for hospitals. It is shameful that the money meant for development work has been given to Reliance and Tata owned power distribution companies for power subsidy,” Chandolia alleged.