BJP demands special session of Assembly to discuss MCD fund issue

Delhi BJP today requested Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to convene a special session of the Delhi Assembly to discuss the issue of financial allocation to the three municipal corporations, which are engaged in a bitter row with the AAP government over release of funds.

Leader of BJP Legislature Party Vijender Gupta called on Jung and requested him to convene a session of the Assembly to table and discuss recommendations of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission.

All the three BJP-ruled municipal bodies have been at the loggerheads with the AAP government over allocation of funds. The civic bodies have been accusing the Delhi government of not releasing adequate funds to them for day-to-day functioning.

In a memorandum submitted to the Lt Governor, Gupta said the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission was constituted in 2009 to decide the share of municipal corporations in the total revenue of Delhi but its recommendations are "yet to be implemented."

The Commission had filed its report in 2013.

"Due to political reasons the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit and then the AAP government suppressed the report," Gupta claimed.

Gupta alleged that both the Dikshit dispensation and AAP government tried to portray the civic bodies in poor light due to political considerations.

"Delhi government's political conspiracy is responsible for economic and administrative mess in all the three Municipal Corporations," he claimed.

The Delhi government has been criticising the municipal corporations accusing them of inefficiency and corruption.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had recently said that if the cash-strapped East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) cannot manage its affairs, it should be handed over to the AAP government, drawing sharp reactions from senior leaders of the corporations.