BJP mayors, councillors take out march from Rajghat, get detained

NEW DLEHI: Mayors of the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations and councillors of the party today took out a march from Rajghat to Delhi Secretariat demanding Arvind Kejriwal government to release funds to the civic bodies and implement recommendations of Delhi Finance Commission.

The mayors and councillors were later detained by police near Indira Gandhi stadium.

"Police detained us near the Delhi Secretariat and took us to IP Estate police station from where we were released after some time.

"We will not let Kejriwal government sit peacefully unless our pending funds are released and recommendations of 4th Delhi Finance Commission (DFC) is implemented," said North Delhi Municipal Corporation mayor Ravindra Gupta.

A group of councillors, led by Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, broke the police cordon and rushed towards the Secretariat but were also detained and taken to IP Estate police station.

Mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation Subhash Arya and that of East Delhi Municipal Corporation Harshdeep Malhotra were also detained.

Malhotra said the municipal corporations were facing problem in discharging their core functions like sanitation, basic education and disbursal of old-age pensions due to financial crisis delay in release of funds by the Delhi government.

Delhi BJP had been demanding the Kejriwal government to release the funds but it had not paid heed to it, party general secretary and Leader of SDMC House Ashish Sood said.

"Kejriwal should stop torturing people of Delhi immediately and release the amount of Rs 2,719 crore under 3rd DFC and implement recommendations of 4th DFC," Sood said.

The stand of Delhi BJP and leaders of the municipal corporations over non-release of funds by AAP government has also been vindicated by the High Court order which has asked it to release the funds, he added.

A memorandum demanding release of funds and implementation of the 4th DFC recommendations was later submitted at the CM's office by the protesters.