Delhi govt paid Rs 2,588 crore to MCD till December: Manish Sisodia

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday accused the BJP of corruption in civic bodies saying the Delhi government paid Rs 2,588 crore to the MCDs till December but the BJP that administers them still didn't pay salaries to its employees.

Speaking at a press conference here, Sisodia said the Delhi government has given 75 per cent of the total budget reserved for the MCDs in three installments and the rest 25 per cent is due in January.

"As per the budget, the Delhi government should give the MCDs Rs 3,488 crores, of which Rs 2,588 crore have been paid till December. The final 25 per cent of the money is due in January, but the MCD employees haven't been paid their salaries," Sisodia said.

He added that the Delhi government has not even deducted any amount for the loans it gave to these bodies and that they owe the government Rs 6,889 crore.

"Since Arvind Kejriwal govt came into power in 2015, we haven't taken the loan amount back from the MCDs. The BJP embezzled Rs 6,889 crore, there is no accountability for the Rs 2,588 crore, and then they say there is no money," the AAP leader said.

He also alleged that the BJP is busy making money through corruption in the MCDs instead of worrying about paying salaries, cleaning up the city, and maintaining hospitals and schools.

"I will give you some examples of how deeply BJP is involved in corruption in the MCD. It is involved in Rs 2500 crore rent scam, Rs 1800 crore house tax scam, and Rs 1800 crore property tax scam," Sisodia said.

He also alleged that the BJP rented waste segregation machines for Rs 6.3 lakh instead of buying them, which would have cost Rs 17.5 lakh each.

"All the machines could have been bought for Rs 1 crore, but it decided to pay an irrational rent and embezzled another Rs 1000 crore.

Then it proposed to pay Rs 306 rent per metric tonne of waste processing. Each machine processes about 6000 metric tonne waste that comes up to Rs 18.36 lakh in rent. So Rs 18.36 lakh is being paid in rent for a machine that costs Rs 17.5 lakh to buy," he said.

"Then the BJP says it doesn't have money. The thing is that the BJP has enough money, it's just the MCD that doesn't have any," he said.

The deputy CM also accused BJP of making Rs 10,000 crore through illegal parking in Delhi.

The Delhi finance minister also accused BJP of swindling up to Rs 400 crore in a parking scam by selling parking space at throwaway prices to earn commission.

"The BJP had sold 13 parking lots in the North MCD to private mafia for pennies and waived crores in property taxes for them.

All these parking lots could generate thousands of crores in revenue each year. However, in order to gulp down commission, the BJP first sold all of the parking at rock-bottom prices and then waived their house tax, Sisodia said.

Responding to Sisodia's allegations, Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the amount disbursed by the Delhi government for the fiscal year 2021-2022 was in fact fixed for year 2012 which has since doubled after the third, fourth, and fifth Delhi Finance Commission's recommendations.

"Dy CM said that Delhi Government has released three-fourths of municipal funds for current year 2021-22 but didn't tell that the amount paid was fixed for year 2012 while after that 3rd, 4th & 5th Delhi Finance Commission's recommendations have doubled the amount and Delhi Government despite accepting the recommendations has not implemented them," Kapoor said.

Denying other allegations as "baseless", Kapoor added that the North DMC has not sold any car parking and it is getting them constructed under PPP Model.