No grant-in-aid provided by Centre to Delhi civic bodies: AAP

The AAP government Tuesday claimed that no grant-in-aid for local bodies in Delhi were provided by the BJP-led Centre and that it was "misleading" the people on the issue.

Tweeting a party pamphlet detailing funds provided to municipal corporations by his government, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought a reply from the BJP on the issue.

Delhi BJP retaliated saying that the AAP government has "failed" to provide funds to the municipal corporations as per the 3rd Delhi Finance Commission (DFC) recommendations.

"Centre is misleading on the issue of funds provided to the Delhi government. Delhi is being mistreated by the Centre and the grant-in-aid for the local bodies are not being provided which would total Rs 4,087 crore as per the 2011 Census," the AAP government said in a statement.

It also claimed that the Centre has "rejected" its "repeated requests" for implementation of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission's recommendations.

The ruling AAP and the BJP have been sparring over the funds issue amid the continuing strike by sanitation workers of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation(EDMC) since September 12.

"To dispel any misinformation and to counter false claims of the BJP's central government and MCDs, the Delhi government is once again placing in public domain the entire facts related to funds released by the Centre and the truth of funding pattern for Delhi," AAP government said in the statement.

AAP leaders said a campaign will be launched in EDMC areas tomorrow to "expose lies" of the BJP over the funds issue.

"Release of funds by the Delhi government (to local bodies) is intrinsically intertwined with allocations to be made to Delhi by the Central government," the AAP government said.

Recently, the Delhi government agreed to release Rs 500 crore to BJP ruled corporations in Delhi in view of the strike by EDMC sanitation workers.

It alleged that "discriminatory and unfair treatment" towards Delhi and its people in terms of its "fair share" in taxes collected by the Centre and grants-in-aid, giving data of past many years.

"The current practice and manner of sharing of resources followed by the Centre unfairly deprives the Delhi government of its rightful share from the divisible pool of central taxes, which significantly affects its developmental budget and ability to meet the needs and aspirations of its ever growing population," it said.

For the current year, the Delhi government was allocated Rs 325 crore as 'central assistance'.

Allocations of 'central assistance made to states- like Assam, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh among other, which are "similarly situated" have increased "substantially" while that of Delhi remained static since 2001-02, Delhi government data showed.

The 'central assistance' to Goa increased from Rs 126.12 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 2979 crore in 2018-19 while that of Himachal Pradesh enhanced from Rs 389.13 crore to Rs 5619. 31 crore in the same period, according to the data.

"Delhi has been discriminated in comparison to union territories, majority of whom do not even have legislative assemblies," the AAP government alleged.

Data furnished by the Delhi government showed that the national capital was allocated Rs 814.19 crore in the current year (including Rs 325 crore) by the Centre while all other UTs got larger sums with Chandigarh receiving Rs 4,084.83 crore for the same period.

Replying to the Kejriwal government accusations, BJP's Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta blamed that the AAP government has not only "failed to implement 4th DFC, it has also not fulfilled its obligations under 3rd DFC recommendations.