Delhi: BJP hits out at AAP in MCD over fund crunch and landfill promises
Leader of the House Mukesh Goyal said that instead of making positive suggestions, leader of the opposition Raja Iqbal Singh delivered a political speech
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Tuesday discussed the budget for 2024-25, nearly a month after the proposals were tabled before the House by civic commissioner, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors indulging in a blame game over several issues such as the allocation of funds for the civic body and the promises to clear the three landfills in the national Capital.
Initiating the discussion, leader of the opposition Raja Iqbal Singh said that the AAP administration has failed to fulfil the 10 guarantees that were given by the ruling party ahead of the December 2023 MCD elections. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in November last year had announced 10 guarantees, including flattening of the three landfills, permanent solution to the parking problem and making the civic schools and hospitals better.
Singh said that the people of Delhi were assured that the landfills would be flattened within an year of AAP coming into power in MCD, but till November 2023 less than 40% of the legacy waste has been cleared. He said that the promises of addressing corruption and ‘lintel mafia’ (reference to illegal constructions) remain unfulfilled.
The senior BJP councillor said that despite the fact the AAP rules both Delhi government and the MCD, funds promised for landfills, improvement of urban villages and slum clusters have not been released.
“Before AAP came to power, MCD used to get funds under heads for urban villages, horticulture development, UR colonies, JJ cluster sanitation all of which were stopped by the state government. I would urge the mayor to get these funds restarted with the AAP in power in both places,” he added.
“Enrolment numbers are going down but the education committee has not been constituted so far. There is no education committee in place to oversee the education programmes,” Singh said. He also alleged that due to non constitution of the standing committee, MCD has not been able to provide the subsidy for uniforms, stationery, bags and scholarships meant for students in the MCD primary schools.
Leader of the House and senior AAP councillor Mukesh Goyal said that instead of making positive suggestions, Singh delivered a political speech.“I have also been a leader of opposition and I have always spoken on budget citing statistics of revenue generation and expenses. But there was not suggestion in Singh’s budget speech that was backed by data. This political speeches have led to a situation that the BJP has been thrown out of power. On February 8, during my speech I will respond to the allegations about all the promises made by AAP. It was the first budget of new AAP administration. It was also be the first MCD budget meant for the welfare of the people,” he added.