The Chief Minister’s announcement about the disbursal of funds for agitating municipal corporation employees here, which he said were arranged by diverting funds earmarked for the Education Department and would lead to further delay in infrastructural expansion intended across the Capital’s government-run schools, was not limited to details about the financial package.
The declaration was followed by accusations of “massive scams” across the three MCDs, attempts to impose President’s rule in the garb of an allegedly manufactured financial crisis and references to what he termed were Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “dictatorial tendencies”.
“An impression is being created as if the Delhi government is responsible for the financial mess in the MCDs, which have been ruled by the BJP for the last 10 years. There are huge scams in the MCDs. A situation is being created through the strike to show that there is a crisis in Delhi,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
“The Modi government has dictatorial tendencies. Someone told me they are trying to create a situation to impose President’s rule in Delhi the way they imposed it in Arunachal Pradesh,” the Chief Minister added as a veiled reference to Mr. Jung’s meeting with the Home Minister.
The announcement, meanwhile, drew flak from various workers’ union of the corporations. “Giving a loan to cash-strapped civic bodies is not a solution. The government should stop acting like a bank and rather should grant a financial package to restore functioning of the civic bodies,” said Sanjay Gehlot of the Swatantra Mazdoor Vikas Sanyukta Morcha.
The Mayors of the three corporations lambasted the Kejriwal government for its “step-motherly” treatment to them. “Why is the Delhi government giving us conditional funds when it is the constitutional right of the corporations. The government is showing it to be charity, whereas it is its duty to implement the recommendations of the Fourth Finance Commission and grant funds accordingly,” said Ravindra Gupta, Mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, however, said that the loan of Rs. 551 crore will result in deferment of several educational projects, which includes the construction of new classrooms. The government had planned to construct 8,000 new classrooms and 25 schools buildings to accommodate the increasing numbers of students, but some of these projects will be deferred to the next financial year, Mr. Sisodia said.
