JOIN USGovt sets up committee to audit MCD accounts
Amid the clamour for funds by the municipal corporations, the Delhi government on Thursday set up a committee to inspect and scrutinise the records of the three municipalities to analyse their performance.
The AAP government directed the fact-finding committee to submit its report within a week.
On Wednesday, the three mayors and Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhayay met President Pranab Mukherjee and asked him to direct the city government to release funds to civic agencies.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia informed that the committee will be headed by a Senior Secretary (Revenue)-cum-Divisional Commissioner A Anbarasu and Additional Secretary (Urban), Sandeep Kumar Mishra will be its member.
Officials with the corporations said that the city government has set up the committee to inspect whether civic agencies have been performing their obligatory functions as mandated under section 42 of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.
North Delhi Mayor Ravinder Gupta said that the civic agency is ready for any audit, but the inquiry should be done by an independent agency.
He asked how could an impartial inquiry be expected from the Chief Minister’s subordinate officer A Anbarasu who will head the committee when there is already an example of inquiry headed by Chetan B Sanghi, who had said in a letter to Home Ministry that he was pressurised to name a VIP in the report.
“The North Corporation is not afraid of any kind of scrutiny as it has always functioned with complete transparency and accountability.”
He said that the decision of setting up an inquiry committee has been taken “with a cruel and malafide intentions” as the Comptroller and Auditor General already scrutinises the accounts of the municipal corporations from time to time.
“The Delhi government has double standards when it comes to scrutiny and accountability. It has bias attitude towards the municipal corporations as it is only politicising the issue (shortage of funds) to hide its own corruption.”
“Despite the High Court’s order, the Delhi government is not releasing funds under Third Finance Commission and implementing the recommendations of Fourth Finance Commission,” said Gupta.
“Had it released the funds on time, the corporations would not have faced such serious financial crunch. But instead of cooperating with the corporations in performing development functions, the Delhi government is setting up committee to hide its own weaknesses.”
He added that it is a conspiracy to keep citizens busy in useless issues so that the corruption and scams which are happening in various departments of the Delhi government stay under the wraps.
“The Delhi government so far has not set up any committee to probe charges against its own departments. CNG scam is a recent example. It has given a clean chit to itself on its own. I request the Chief Minister to stop this petty politics as citizens of Delhi are suffering,” added Gupta said.