NEW DELHI: Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Durgesh Pathak on Sunday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led municipal corporations are doling out land to its own leaders by using NGOs as a façade.
Pathak, AAP's in-charge of municipal affairs, alleged that the BJP is functioning like a nexus of mafias, which just wants to indulge in corruption and take over public assets. "In the last 6-7 months BJP ruled civic bodies brought proposals to sell off Chandni Chowk's Gandhi Maidan parking, Novelty Cinema land, five parking and shopping complexes in Karol Bagh among other places. They refuse to give us land but are happily selling schools to earn profits," said Pathak.
Responding to this, the BJP councillor from Sawan Park, Manju Khandelwal, rubbished the allegations as 'baseless' and said that AAP leader Pathak must do his homework properly before he sets out to make such huge allegations.
"Firstly, Pathak must not talk about a subject, which he knows nothing about. Second, the allegations are totally baseless. The land is of a dhalao, which was cleared and converted to something else, under the civic body's Zero Dhalao policy. Since the civic bodies do not have enough funds, it was decided to lease out these lands to non profit organisations on a lease of five years to redo them," said Khandewal.