Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj on Wednesday said that the BJP ruled South MCD has announced a hike in councillor fund from Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 1 crores and that the BJP is trying to completely loot the MCD before going to the upcoming election.

He said that a recent audit report of the BJP ruled MCD has clearly noted that there are hundreds of projects with very doubtful execution. This means that all the projects under the MCD happened on paper but not in reality. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party wants to know how can the BJP ruled MCD increase the councillor fund from Rs50 lakhs to Rs1 crores at a time when they claim that they do not have money to pay the salaries of their own employees.

Bhardwaj said that we believe that the BJP councillors are very scared and they feel that in the upcoming election the BJP will lose, therefore, they want to loot the MCD completely before leaving.

Bhardwaj said, “Yesterday there was a major and significant announcement by the BJP ruled South MCD. You all know that the employees of the BJP ruled MCD are on strike because the BJP ruled MCD has not paid the salaries of the doctors, nurses, medical professionals, teachers, sanitation workers and others for the last several months.

“The Delhi High Court has also observed that the MCD should look into curtailing the expenses and the benefits given to the senior officials of the BJP ruled MCD. There are various posts in the BJP ruled MCD like the deputy mayor or the chairman of the standing counsel who gets a lot of benefits like transportation expenses, cars and others.

“So at one side the BJP ruled MCD claims that they do not have money to pay the salaries of their employees and on the other side yesterday they have increased the funds for the councillors. Earlier they increased this fund from Rs.25 lakhs to Rs.50 lakhs and now it has become Rs.1 crores.”

He said, “The Aam Aadmi Party wants to know how can the BJP ruled MCD increase the councillor fund from Rs50 lakh to Rs1 crore at a time when they claim that they do not have money to pay the salaries of their own employees. Aam Aadmi Party believes that this increase in the fund happened because to the BJP this is the last chance to loot from the MCD.

“The audit report has noted very carefully that there are a number of examples of projects where it is doubtful the way the BJP ruled MCD has executed those projects. The audit report has also noted that in the name of execution of these doubtful projects the BJP ruled MCD has spent lakhs and lakhs of money,” he said.