AAP starts campaign to ‘expose MCD graft’

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday launched a campaign to organise 2,500 mohalla sabhas (public meetings) to highlight the alleged corruption in the three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led municipal corporations of Delhi.

On Day One, AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj held these meetings in Kalkaji and Greater Kailash assembly constituencies, respectively.

Bhardwaj held his public meeting at Dargah Chowk on Thursday afternoon, which saw a crowd of around 100-200 people. The AAP MLA and chief spokesperson criticised the BJP and its former Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari for “lying” to the people of Delhi. Bharadwaj said during the last MCD elections, Tiwari had promised the people of Delhi the BJP would ensure the MCDs get money directly from the Central government.

“Tiwari promised the people of Delhi before the 2017 MCD election that if they make the BJP win, there will be no scarcity of money in the civic bodies because the BJP will directly bring money or fund from the Central government. The BJP won the 2017 MCD election and it has been four years since they are ruling the MCD. But the situation has not changed at all. The same financial mismanagement is going on in the civic bodies with its employees going on protests every day,” Bhardwaj said.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said the strike in civic bodies is the result of a lack of political intent in the state government.

“Ever since Kejriwal came to power in 2015, with a political bias towards the BJP-ruled civic bodies, it has been in one way or the other curtailing the release of constitutional funds for the three MCDs. The present situation is such that the arrears of municipal funds amount to over ₹13,000 crore, in the current financial year 2020-21. The fourth quarter of the year has started but civic bodies have got one about 30% of this year’s allocated funds,” he said.