AAP alleges ₹6 crore graft in MCD parking contracts

In response, the MCD dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and said it is “committed to run its parking sites in professional manner”.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday alleged that corruption in the awarding of parking contracts by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi has led to a loss of ₹6 crore to the civic body, and demanded a detailed enquiry into the matter.

File photo of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Durgesh Pathak (PTI)

In response, the MCD dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and said it is “committed to run its parking sites in professional manner”.

Earlier in the day, AAP MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak at a press conference said, “MCD gave tender to a company to collect parking fees and people paid parking fees but the collected amount never reached MCD. The matter went to court and the company did not pay the money despite court orders. Finally, MCD suspended its license but the owners of that company opened several companies to defraud MCD and as a result, MCD suffered a loss of ₹6 crore.”

The Rajinder Nagar legislator further claimed that the private contractor awarded the contract should have charged ₹20 per vehicle but instead charged ₹40-60 to park a vehicle.

“After collecting the parking fees, they did not deposit that money in MCD’s account. The matter reached the court and in 2022, the court ordered the company to pay the money and in case of default, the MCD can blacklist the company. The company did not deposit the money by that date and MCD blacklisted them along with cancelling their licence,” he said.

He alleged that the people who ran this blacklisted company simply formed another company and they won the tender for parking again. “Similarly, they formed several other companies who got the tender. These companies will also not deposit the parking fee they collected… The MCD will have to bear a huge loss,” Pathak claimed.

A BJP spokesperson did not comment on the matter.

Responding to Pathak’s allegations, the MCD in a statement said, “In pursuance to media requests for response to some allegation doing the rounds about loss of revenue in respect to an MCD parking site, the corporation downright rejects such baseless allegations. Since there is no specific name or parking site that has been pointed to for alleged loss of revenue, hence MCD is not in a position to spell out the real position against the allegations. However, it is stated that court’s orders are complied with by the corporation… It is emphasized that MCD is committed to run its parking sites in a professional manner and license fees is collected as per the terms and conditions of the contract.”