Delhi civic bodies most corrupt, says AAP

New Delhi: Terming the civic bodies as the world’s “most corrupt department,” the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday alleged that the Rs 2,000 crore mega pension scam, that has been continuing since almost two decades, is just a tip of the iceberg and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter.

“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. The Aam Aadmi Party demands a CBI inquiry into the mega-pension scam and will take recourse to all legal options, including filing a petition in the appropriate court for a probe into this fraud committed on taxpayers’ money,” the party said.

The party said that after two months when elections of MCDs are held, the party will probe all acts of corruption and mismanagement in the MCDs, which have ruined the basic sanitation and hygiene conditions of the national capital.

Addressing the media on the issue, Aam Aadmi Party leader and minister in the Delhi government, 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.”

However, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari has said that Mr Mishra’s charges of corruption in the pension distribution in the municipal corporations is due to his lack of administrative knowledge. “It is an attempt to politically defame the civic bodies,” Mr Manoj Tiwari added.

Mr Tiwari alleged that besides this the strategy of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of leveling political allegations on the activities of the Municipal Corporations for every matter is behind these charges.

Kapil Mishra said the Aam Aadmi Party has consistently maintained that the MCDs are a den of corruption and are monumentally mismanaged financially.“Take the example of the current financial year 2016-17, Delhi government has so far released Rs 1102 crore to the North MCD and Rs 609 crore to the east MCD under non-planned head, which is primarily for payment of salaries,” Mr Mishra said.

“In case this pension scam of around Rs 2,000 crore had been prevented in the MCD all these years, all 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,” Mr Mishra said.