Mayors of the three BJP-ruled Municipal Corporations in the national capital on Tuesday launched an attack on the Delhi government demanding the release of financial dues of Rs 13,000 crores to the civic bodies.
North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Mayor Jai Prakash, South Delhi (SDMC) Mayor Anamika Mithilesh Singh, and East Delhi (EDMC) Municipal Corporation mayor Nirmal Jain attended the press conference in which they unleashed an attack on the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led government.
"Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain accepted that the Delhi government has our money, and he promised to clear them I have got it on a clip too. I gave him the warning that if the dues of the three municipal corporations are not cleared within 10 days then on the 11th day we will again sit in a dharna outside the CM's residence," Prakash said.
The NDMC Mayor lashed out at the Delhi CM for refusing to meet and leaving the Mayors with no option but to sit in protest outside his residence for close to eight to nine hours yesterday. The mayors had called off their protest after meeting with Urban Development and Health Minister Satyendra Jain.
"I have started calling AAP the 'Aarop Aadmi Party'. We represent the two crore people of Delhi, it was neither a protest nor a dharna. One government went to meet another, the three mayors, who are called the first citizens of Delhi, went to meet Arvind Kejriwal and he did not even come outside to meet them. This was not a surprise visit, I had met him two and half months ago too and had made him aware of the financial difficulties the municipal corporation is facing," he said.
"I also presented a report on how the municipal functioned during the coronavirus phase, how we handled medical waste, stised the city and foodgrain distribution. I had then demanded him to release salaries in which he had promised it will be done within 15 days, but then he did not even talk to us for the next one month," he further alleged.
The NDMC Mayor further alleged that the three have written to the Delhi CM countless times in the past over the issue but to no avail.
"In the past one and a half months, we have written to him daily, on 19th the three of us jointly wrote a letter in which we said either give us time to meet or we will meet you in the time for public hearing," he said.
He further said that the trio was there to demand salaries, wages, pensions for the personnel both serving and retired. Rs 13,000 crores is due for the three municipal corporations.
"It is our responsibility to pay the salaries of all corporation employees, but getting our money which is with the Delhi government too is our responsibility," he added.
Apart from the Chief Minister the three mayors also targeted Delhi Health Minister over his act of putting out a tweet to the Mayors, asking them to come meet him at the Secretariat instead of conveying it through a secretary.
The three mayors were protesting over the non-payment of salaries of the employees of the municipal corporation on Monday.
Amid the crisis of pending salaries of the municipal corporation employees, North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash on Monday requested Kejriwal to meet them and explain the disbursal procedure for the due amount of Rs 13,000 crores.
Regarding the allegations of there being corruption in the corporations raised by Satyendra Jain, the NDMC Mayor said, "While Jain was with us I spoke to him on the issue and he could not reply to even one of our queries. These are baseless."
( With inputs from ANI )
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