Upping the ante against the Kejriwal Government, the BJP-ruled Delhi Municipal Councillors led by Mayors, Deputy Mayors and chairmen of Standing Committees staged a dharna for over three hours outside Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday over denial of funds and other dues by the Kejriwal Government. leader of the BJP in the Delhi Assembly Vijendra Gupta joined the dharna before going to the Assembly Session and assured the protesters of raising the matter in the Assembly.
The three Mayors — Yogendra Chandolia, Khushi Ram and Meenakshi — said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party spoke a lot on swaraj. “Influenced by his proclaimed commitment to swaraj and mohalla sabhas, we met him recently to raise our long-pending issues. Unfortunately, we found that the attitude of the present Government is much more rigid then the earlier regime and this has forced the ruling party in corporations to sit on a dharna,” the Mayors said.
After the protest, the councillors held a meeting with lt-Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung. The municipal leaders were agitated due to constant withholding of municipal funds, grants and necessary lawful sanctions by subsequent Delhi Governments since 2007, when the BJP came into power in the municipal bodies.
A delegation of municipal leaders later met the l-G to demand his intervention in the matter and release of municipal funds, grants and other statutory sanctions. They urged the l-G to direct the Delhi Government to table in the Assembly the Statutory Report that came in 2013 recommending 12.5 per cent share in Delhi Government’s revenue for three municipal corporations.
Chairmen of all three bodies — Subash Arya, BB Tyagi and Mohan Bhardwaj — said that due to paucity of funds, civic services were getting badly-affected. They blamed the Delhi Government of playing dirty politics in order to malign the public image of corporations and the BJP.
“Under the Constitution, local bodies hold an important role in imparting benefits of governance to the people, but unfortunately be it the earlier Sheila Dikshit Government or the present Arvind Kejriwal regime, they all have withheld funds and sanctions of municipal corporations to settle political scores,” said Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay.