AAP says DDA owes civic bodies ₹2,000 crore; BJP says pursuing matter with Centre

New Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday alleged that the Delhi Development Authority( DDA), which comes under the Centre, owes more than ₹2,000 crore to the BJP-led north and south corporations.

AAP’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj questioned the BJP as to why the corporations had not initiated the process to get the funds back from the DDA.

Bhardwaj said, “The DDA, which comes under the BJP-ruled Central government, owes more than ₹2,000 crores to north and south corporations. According to the data, the DDA owed around ₹857 crore to the north corporation till March 31, 2018. Based on this figure, if we calculate, the amount comes to ₹1200 crore today.”

He said that the DDA owes close to ₹535 crore to the south corporation.

The civic bodies in Delhi — north, east and south — have been run by the BJP for the last 14 years.

Bhardwaj said, “The BJP should immediately disclose why they have not taken initiative to get this money from the DDA, despite both the agencies being under them. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta should tell what are the steps that have been taken to bring this money back from the DDA.”

The BJP has been blaming the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi for not releasing funds to the corporations due to which they are unable to pay salaries to employees.

But Bhardwaj said, “From the time Gupta has become the Delhi BJP chief, he has maintained only one line which is that the Kejriwal government should give some amount to the BJP-ruled corporations. We have witnessed that the corporations have stopped all their revenue garnering ways like collection of property tax, advertisements, toll tax and others. Today, the revenue from these sources is not coming to the corporations but going to the leaders of the BJP.“

DDA officials did not respond to HT’s query seeking a response on the AAP’s allegations.

Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said, “There is no doubt that several government bodies, including Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Transport Corporation, power Discoms and the DDA owe money to the corporations. But that doesn’t free the Delhi government from paying the funds it owes to the corporations. The corporations are pursuing with all agencies to get their dues and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj should also ask the Delhi government to release municipal funds and to make Delhi Jal Board, DTC and power discoms pay their dues.”

Malhotra added, “We want the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to tell us when he will pay RS 13000 crore due to the corporations? Where is the ₹26,000 crore of Delhi Jal Board?”