MCD mayors hit out at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over 'financial mess'

NEW DELHI: The three Mayors of the capital today sought to "expose the lies" of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the "financial mess" of the civic bodies and said Delhi government was constitutionally mandated and "fully responsible" for managing the MCDs.

A newspaper advertisement titled, "Exposing the lies of Kejriwal's advertisements", to this effect was issued by the three heads of the BJP-ruled civic bodies -- Subhash Arya (South), Ravinder Gupta (North) and Harshdeep Malhotra (East).

They claimed that "as per Article 243 of the Constitution", the responsibility of Corporations lie completely with the state government.

Kejriwal in his open letter, published on October 30, had said that there is a "misconception" among the people that municipal corporations come under the Delhi government and termed it is "absolutely incorrect".

The Mayors also claimed that the "third installment" of the three MCDs totalling Rs 1,179 crore was yet to be paid by the government contrary to Kejriwal's assertion that the AAP government had released Rs 511 crore extra to the corporations this year as compared to the previous year.

They also listed as dues Rs 1,322 crore as part of Municipal Reforms Funds and Rs 6,000 crore to that of fourth Delhi Finance Commission recommendations (yet to be implemented).

The Mayors also taunted the ruling AAP saying it has the requisite funds to "hike MLA salaries by five folds" but not enough to pay pending widow pensions and dues of sanitation workers.