NEW DELHI: Delhi's Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said the additional chief secretary of his department has been requested to investigate the alleged misappropriation of Rs 2400 crore by the BJP-led municipal corporations.
The Aam Aadmi Party has been claiming that there is a misappropriation of over Rs 2400 crore done by the BJP-led North Delhi MCD with the amount it had taken from South Delhi MCD, an allegation refuted by the saffron party.
Addressing a press conference, Jain said on one hand, the BJP-led north municipal corporation is incapable of paying salaries to frontline workers, but on other hand, it is misappropriating a hefty amount.
"The Delhi government has been instrumental in paying off whatever is due to MCD, before time. We are not supposed to pay them anything, instead, they are the ones who owe us thousands of crores," Jain said on the claims of the MCD.
The Delhi BJP had earlier said that there was no corruption or manipulation in settling of dues between two government bodies as reportedly done by North and South MCDs.
On Friday, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Jain's comment on the municipal commissioner's proposal to settle a rent amount between North and South MCDs is a "politically biased statement."
"It is shocking that even after being in power and administration for six years Satyendar Jain does not know that in MCDs, the commissioner independently brings the budget before the Standing Committee and it is up to the elected councilors to accept his proposals or reject them," he said.
"The BJP-ruled North MCD Standing Committee stands firmly resolved to reject the commissioner's proposal to write off South MCD's rent dues," Kapoor said.
Addressing another press conference, AAP spokesperson Atishi attacked the BJP-led municipal corporations.
"For the past 15 days commissioners of all the three BJP-ruled MCDs are on leave; who is running the MCDs right now? At one side the mayors of the MCDs are sitting outside the CM residence and busy doing their politics; on the other side the commissioners are on leave," she said.
"The Aam Aadmi Party wants to know why has the BJP left the MCD in such a headless condition and who is responsible for making the new budgets or imposing these series of new taxes on citizens," Atishi added.
On the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, Jain, who is also the health minister, said November 7 was the peak of the third wave in the national capital.
The positivity rate was 15.26 per cent on that day, which has been on the perpetual decline ever since.
"For the past 10 days, the positivity rate has been below five per cent. I can say that the third wave is on the wane. More than 70,000 tests however are still being carried out. The situation is very much under control, but still, I will request you all to wear a mask, follow social distancing," he said.
"Wearing a mask will help us in eradicating the virus from the city. I applaud the citizens for their continued support, as well as the healthcare workers who have been working tirelessly," Jain said.
Addressing the query surrounding the delay in reports of RT-PCR tests, he said it is being looked into.
"We followed the Centre orders to double the testing, which led to the delay. But now, there is a betterment in the turnaround time," he said.