East Delhi Mayor Meenakshi today alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was "not giving time" to her to discuss the financial situation of the cash-strapped EDMC, which is running into losses amounting to Rs 500 crore.
She claimed she had been calling the Chief Minister's Office since February 16 to seek time to deliberate upon the financial crunch facing EDMC, but to no avail.
"Due to the ongoing financial woes, the EDMC has not been able to pay salaries to its staff and pension to its retired employees for the previous month and old-age pension or widow pension for the last 22 months," she said.
She alleged that Kejriwal is "unable to understand the urgency" of the matter and sought an early resolution of the problems faced by the corporation. Since the trifurcation of the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2012, the EDMC has been facing financial problems.
At the time of trifurcation, the Delhi government had promised an aid to compensate the financial losses but released "Rs 335 crore only as a loan".
Since then the civic body has "not received any financial help" from the Delhi government, EDMC claimed.
AAP leader Kejriwal had assumed charge of Delhi on February 14.
"EDMC is dependent on the funds from the Delhi government for its function and therefore it is the duty of the chief minister to resolve the matter at the earliest," she said in a statement released by the EDMC today.
A delegation from the EDMC including the Mayor, before the installation of the new AAP government, had met with Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to bail it out of debt.
In January, the Mayor had also called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, seeking help from the Centre.
