NEW DELHI: Appealing the people to place the Aam Aadmi Party at helm of the civic bodies next year, the Delhi government on Thursday said it is releasing funds worth Rs 938 crores towards municipal corporations to pay salaries to the staff.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that despite government’s own revenue going down by 50 per cent and many schemes coming to halt, the suffering of municipal workers was unbearable for the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. That’s why, he ordered the release of these funds.
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"The chief minister said that it was not the fault of the employees. If they’ve worked, they should be getting their salaries. Even the Delhi government is short of funds... We’ve also had to stop many schemes to budget. However, `938 crore is being given for the salary of the employees despite the government having no such liability,” he said.
Delhi minister Satyendar Jain also said that despite MCDs owning the government a loan of Rs 6,000 crores, the decision was taken to ease the pain of staff which is protesting on roads demanding payment of pending salaries. Both the ministers hit out at the BJP leaders in the corporations for ‘pocketing’ the funds due to which the staff had to suffer. For the past many years, both the AAP and BJP have had clashed over the allocation of funds to the civic bodies.
“I would like to tell the BJP people to not steal this money also. Just pay the salaries to your employers,” he said. Responding to Sisodia, BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said “It will be better if instead of giving misleading statements, Delhi government immediately releases at least total funds due towards MCDs for 2020-21 without any cuts.” The municipal elections are slated to be held next year and the politics around the civic bodies has heated up in recent days.