The leaders of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said on Tuesday that they were preventing the waste of public money by not granting approval to development projects proposed by the MLAs.
Eye on 2017
municipal polls
Their statements came a day after Aam Aadmi Party Delhi unit secretary and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led corporations, particularly the SDMC, of preventing MLAs from carrying out works. The AAP alleged that the BJP leaders had only prevented the projects with an eye on the 2017 municipal polls.
SDMC Mayor Shyam Sharma denied the AAP’s allegations. He said the civic body had not given no-objection certificates (NOCs) for projects proposed by the MLAs, to save the taxpayers’ money.
“In the case Mr. Bharadwaj referred to, the NOC was not issued in order to save public money from going to waste. The AAP MLAs are making small additions to the projects done by the SDMC just to take credit,” he said.
While the AAP had said the SDMC passed a resolution to not allow any works proposed by the MLAs, Mr. Sharma said the resolution was only to make NOCs mandatory for all projects.
SDMC Leader of the House Subhash Arya said the MLAs were “insisting on the same work” that was being carried out by councillors.
“This amounts to duplication,” he said, adding that the MLAs were trying to install benches in parks owned by the corporation. This war of words between the BJP and the AAP will only heat up as the April 2017 polls inch closer.
