Aam Aadmi Party today hit streets cleaning the garbage on them as a mark of protest against the on-going strike by safai karamcharis who are resenting non-payment of salaries by BJP-controlled municipal corporations in Delhi.
AAP MLAs and volunteers conducted a cleanliness drive in north-east and east Delhi.
"BJP-ruled municipal corporations have failed to pay salaries to safai karmcharis which has led to strike by them. The irresponsible attitude of BJP-run municipal corporations has turned Delhi into a heap of garbage. The situation has worsened in the past couple of days but the BJP has turned a blind eye," said AAP in a statement.
AAP MLA from Karawal Nagar Kapil Mishra, Gokal Puri MLA Fateh Singh, Ghonda MLA Shridutt Sharma, Seemapuri MLA Rajendra Gautam, Rohras Nagar MLA Sarita Singh and MLA from Seelampur Haji Bhure gathered in Seemapuri area near Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and carried out a cleanliness drive in the area.
A similar exercise was carried out in Mayur Vihar Phase 3 of East Delhi where party legislators Raju Dhingan (Trilokpuri), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar).
"Corporations are being ruled by BJP for the last 8 years. They have become a den of corruption. It is an extremely inefficient & lethargic in its style of working. They have turned Delhi into a dustbin.
"Delhi government has already made all remittances to these corporations that were accrued for this financial year including 10.5 per cent of tax collections as per State Finance Commission," the party said in a statement.
Kapil Mishra said "it is also unfortunate that corporations' own direct source of income, that is property tax, is in miserable state. The collection of legitimate revenue is hampered due to corruption and inefficiency. They have also failed to systematically enhance their revenues."
The Karawal Nagar MLA said if Delhi is included in 'terms of reference' of Central Finance Commissions, then these Corporations of Delhi will get increased revenues.
"Similar revenue received by corporations of Haryana and Punjab (neighboring states) by virtue of being included in 'terms of reference' of Central Finance Commissions is 600 crores approximately respectively.
"Our advice to corporators will be: stop politicizing this issue and ask the central government which is run by its own party to remit this amount to Delhi," he added.
