Delhi Congress vice-president Abishek Dutt on Friday filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Delhi High Court, seeking details from the AAP government of the money collected by it through taxes and the grants received from the Central government, a share of which is payable to the Municipal Corporations of Delhi. The PIL also asked for the amount paid to the municipal corporations and the manner in which the civic bodies have expended the money.
The PIL comes at a time when civic body workers, most of them who have been at the frontline during the COVID-19 crisis, have been on strike demanding their salaries while the AAP government and the BJP-run civic bodies have been trading charges on the state of finances.
Mr. Dutt demanded a “true and complete” disclosure of funds collected by the Delhi government and distributed to the three civic bodies in accordance with the recommendations of the 5th Finance Commission. In the PIL, he has also sought a detailed “forensic examination and audit of the financial dealings and affairs” of the Delhi government and the civic bodies by the CAG.
Salary delay
“The current plight of the civic bodies is such that neither the Central government nor the State government has been giving any funds to them, thus severely hampering the payment of salaries to the frontline corona warriors, who risked their own lives to work overtime during the lockdown and thereafter,” Mr. Dutt said.
He added that the net tax collection by the Delhi government was on the rise, and it even made a ₹60,000-crore budget estimate but it had not complied with the Finance Commission’s recommendations on giving money to the civic bodies for “basic expenses”.
