NEW DELHI: The AAP today demanded a CBI inquiry into MCD pensions scheme alleging Rs 2,000 crore scam, a charge refuted and dubbed as a ploy to defame the civic bodies by the BJP.
The AAP claimed that the "scam" is a tip of the iceberg in the alleged irregularities in the civic bodies and it will take all legal options, including filing a petition in the appropriate court, for a probe into the matter.
Addressing the media, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi minister Kapil Mishra said, "It is an extremely serious issue that poor sanitation workers in the MCDs are politically and economically exploited. On the other hand, a scam went on unchecked for nearly two decades in the undivided MCD and later on even after trifurcation."
"In case this pension scam of around Rs 2,000 crore had been prevented in the MCD all these years, all the three MCDs would have comfortably paid the salaries of all their employees from Group A to D for a complete year, without having to look here and there," he added.
It is a matter of extreme shame that the BJP-ruled MCDs are trying to hush up the "mega scam" exposed by none other than the Chief Auditor of Municipal Accounts, Mishra said.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari hit back at Mishra, saying the AAP leader lacked administrative knowledge about the functioning of the MCDs.
Tiwari said according to the decision taken by the government of India in 1985, all the state governments and municipal corporations pay salary and pension to their employees through the banks.
"Under this system, all the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi pay pension to their employees through the nationalised banks and the life certificate of the pensioner is collected and verified by their related bank," he said.
Employee pension is completely based on the verification by the banks and there is no role of the MCD officials and leaders in its payment, Tiwari said.