Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Wednesday challenged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to a public debate on the issue of municipal funds and alleged that development of the Capital has been neglected in the past two years.
Mr. Tiwari alleged that the Delhi government records themselves posited that expenditure on development had gone down during the last two years and that the Kejriwal-led government was “intentionally withholding” the implementation of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission recommendations on the revenue share of Municipal Corporations.
“The Delhi government claims to have given more funds to the civic bodies, but the truth is that the funds given are not even half of what they are entitled to as per the 4th DFC report,” Mr. Tiwari said.
In numbers
The Delhi BJP chief added that the East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s salary bill is around ₹1,600 crore while its total revenue is ₹400 crore, “the Delhi government has given around ₹609 crore and denied Municipal Reforms Funds”.
Similarly, Mr. Tiwari added, the north corporation has a revenue of ₹1,500 crore and got around ₹1,000 crore from the Delhi government while its salary bill alone is ₹2,600 crore.
“The non-implementation of the 4th DFC due to political bias by the AAP government has crippled the civic bodies making it impossible to provide good civic amenities, health and education services and to implement small social welfare pension scheme,” Mr. Tiwari said.
