The decision of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) asking its officials "not to answer" questions of the Delhi Assembly's privilege committee set a stage of confrontation between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the South Corporation ahead of municipal polls scheduled later this year.
AAP Chief Spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj termed the proposal contempt of the historical institution of Delhi Vidhan Sabha. Talking about the issue, he said that an AAP MLA had asked in the Vidhan Sabha whether the BJP pays the MCD for all the advertisements it has put up in Delhi and the MCD Commissioner replied saying he has no information on it.
“Today the MCD is being driven into doom because the BJP puts up hoardings for free and prevents the MCD from earning from them. One hoarding is supposed to generate 1-1.15 lakh in revenue per month but the BJP is looting the MCD of 2,680 crores every year,” he said.
Bhardwaj said, “Whenever someone heads out of their homes in Delhi, they come across a sea of advertisements of the BJP and its leaders. Be it the hoardings, the public conveniences, the street furniture, or even a loosely hanging pole, we’d see all of it has been hijacked by the BJP. This is not an exaggeration but a fact. Everyone knows how many political ads of the BJP have been put up all over Delhi.”
However, Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that South DMC's decision to not to reply to Delhi Assembly's queries is logically correct as Arvind Kejriwal Government is not implementing the 4th and 5th Delhi Finance Commission recommendations on funds for MCDs.
The Kejriwal government has refused to release funds after acceptance in Delhi Assembly, so how does it expect MCDs to reply to that Assembly's queries, he said. “When Delhi Government does not respect the Delhi Assembly then how does it expect the South DMC to answer the politically motivated questions on hoardings raised in the same Assembly,” he added.
The Delhi BJP Spokesperson further said that it is surprising that AAP MLA Bhardwaj briefed about sites where BJP hoardings are placed as illegal but he and his colleagues turned a blind eye when hoardings of Arvind Kejriwal' birthday greetings were put up at the same sites.
A proposal in this connection, which was moved by SDMC's Leader of the House Inderjeet Sehrawat, was approved by the standing committee of the civic body on Friday.