The AAP on Monday asked the BJP to immediately pay salaries to the employees of the municipal corporations or resign, noting that despite having a budget of Rs 18,000 crore, it keeps complaining of financial crunch.
Replying to the Aam Aadmi Party, the Delhi BJP said the three municipal corporations may be having a combined budget of around Rs 18,000 crore, but they are facing extreme financial deficit due to the "Arvind Kejriwal government's non grant of arrears of accumulated funds of last five years" as per 4th Delhi Finance Commission recommendations.
Addressing a press conference, AAP functionary Durgesh Pathak claimed that if 20 per cent of the budget allocated to the municipal corporations would have been spent honestly, then the salary of any MCD employee would not have stopped.
"Rs 18,000 crore is not little money but it is a very big amount. The employees of the BJP-led municipal corporations do not get their salary but only one section of people gets the benefit of this huge amount," he said.
"If you look at the houses of the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and the local councillors you will understand that this money goes in their pocket. The unfortunate part is that this whole budget just goes in the pockets of the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and the poor people or the employees do not get any benefit of this huge money," Mr Pathak alleged.
He demanded that either the BJP pays salaries to its employees in a week or resign.
"The BJP does not have the moral right to remain in power of MCD. The Aam Aadmi Party today demands that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led MCD should release the pending salaries of the employees within a week," Mr Pathak said.
"If the Bharatiya Janata Party does not pay the salary of their employees within a week, then they will not have any moral right to stay in the power of the MCD and they should immediately resign," he added.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the Aam Aadmi Party may know that three municipal corporations have salary bills of around Rs 10,000 crore per annum apart from huge expenditures on hospitals, schools, health centres, mid day meals, regular maintenance expenses on horticulture, roads, community services, etc.
"The three MCDs may be having a combined budget of around 18,000 crore but they are facing extreme financial deficit due to Arvind Kejriwal government's non grant of arrears of accumulated funds of last 5 years as per 4th Delhi Finance Commission recommendations," he said in a statement.
"MCDs employees understand the ground reality of the financial crunch and Durgesh Pathak's politically loaded statements can't provoke the employees. If Durgesh Pathak is so concerned about MCD employees financial hardship, then he should ask Arvind Kejriwal govt to immediately release financial arrears of all three MCDs at earliest," he added.
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