An 11-member delegation of BJP councillors from three civic bodies on Friday met Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and submitted a letter asking him to direct the Delhi government to release the funds due to them.
Leader of house in North Delhi Municipal Corporation Vijay Prakash Pandey said the Delhi government owed Rs 9,000 crore to all three corporations.
"We have submitted a resolution to Kiren Rijiju and asked him to direct Delhi government to release the funds of civic bodies which amounts to Rs 9,000 crore. All the three municipal corporations are ailing due to lack of funds," Pandey told IANS.
The delegation included all three mayors, standing committee chairmen and leaders of house of civic bodies.
Councillors Rekha Gupta and Ashish Sood, who are also general secretaries in Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were also part of the delegation.
The councillors requested Rijiju to ask the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government to let them (civic bodies) function according to the provisions in the constitutions.
"We have requested him to also direct Delhi government to abide by the constitutional provisions which have been made to run local bodies. We are hopeful that Rijiju ji will convey our concerns to Delhi government," he said outside Parliament Street police station.
Earlier, scores of BJP councillors started a march from the inner circle of Connaught Place to the minister's home, to protest against the "constitutional crisis" in civic bodies of Delhi.
They were stopped by police authorities at Parliament Street station following which the 11-member delegation visited Rijiju's home.
The BJP-led civic bodies and Delhi government led by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been at loggerheads ever since the latter has come to power.
While AAP government has alleged that there was widespread corruption in municipal corporations and they have failed to perform the basic duties; the civic bodies claim that Delhi government has not released their funds.
--IANS
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