'Govt has no right to audit MCDs'

Hitting out at the Delhi government, the three mayors met Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and told him that Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has no legal right to set up a committee to audit municipal corporations’ accounts.

North Delhi Mayor Ravinder Gupta, East Delhi Mayor Harsh Malhotra and South Delhi Mayor Subhash Arya, said that the decision to set up inquiry committee is nothing but a political gimmick.

They said that accounts of municipal corporations are already audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Mayor of North Delhi Ravinder Gupta has also written a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to implement the January 7 orders of the court which directed the Delhi government to release the funds due to the civic agencies.

“It is a contempt of court by the Delhi government and the Chief Minister.” The mayor has also sent a detailed demand letter to the CM on the issue.

The mayors also informed the Lieutenant Governor about the current financial condition of the corporations which are struggling to pay salaries to their staff, pensions to eneficiaries and carrying on development work.

LG urged
They urged the LG to persuade the Delhi government to pay funds as per the Third Delhi Finance Commission and implement the recommendations of the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission.

On Thursday, the Delhi government had set up a committee to inspect and scrutinise the records of the three municipalities and analyse their performance.

Report in one week
The Aam Aadmi Party government had directed the ‘fact-finding’ committee to submit its report within a week.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had informed that the committee would be headed by a Senior Secretary (Revenue)-cum-Divisional Commissioner A Anbarasu and Additional Secretary (Urban), Sandeep Kumar Mishra will be its member.

According to the government’s order, the committee would inspect whether civic agencies have been performing their obligatory functions as mandated under section 42 of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.

On Wednesday, the three mayors and Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhayay had met President Pranab Mukherjee and asked him to direct the city government to release funds to civic agencies.