Bracing for a face-off with the Centre, the Arvind Kejriwal Government is planning to probe the revenue generation and expenditure of all the three BJP-led municipal bodies in the national Capital. Except for the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the other two bodies are in very bad financial status. Top sources said that that the Government had twice asked the municipal commissioners to bring their turnaround plans with vision document for revival of the defunct corporations. There were, reportedly, over 20,000 “ghost” employees, who existed only on papers.
“There is a discrepancy in the figures of the property tax collections available online and the one’s put up in the ledgers. The municipal bodies have failed to spend the money they had been allocated for eradication of malaria and dengue. Even completion certificates of construction activities are not made available on time,” sources revealed. When asked which agency would be commissioned to launch the probe, sources said that the matter may be handed over to the city administration’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). But, the AAP administration’s decision and authority to order the ACB is still doubtful.
According to sources, the municipal bodies are playing politics over the critical issue rather than taking a pragmatic view of the whole scenario. “We came to power on February 14, 2015. Why the East Delhi municipal body had failed to pay its employees in January and February. And we have raised this issue with lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and other Central Ministers plenty of times.”
The AAP Government, therefore, feels that the corporations are in a mess due to rampant prevailing corruption in revenue generation and execution of various schemes. “We are under tremendous pressure to probe all the financial transactions of the three municipal bodies,” said officials. Chief Secretary KK Sharma also held a meeting with his officials to review the functioning of the municipal bodies. He also discussed thread-bare on the ways the corporations could be made financially viable. The matter related to the time-bound cleanliness plan for the corporations was also discussed.
On Wednesday, the AAP Government launched a confrontation with the BJP Government at the Centre and passed a resolution against the Union Home Ministry’s notification “restricting” the powers of the anti-corruption branch.