AAP's decision to audit MCD a political drama: civic bodies

New Delhi, Jan 21: City's BJP-ruled municipal corporations criticised the AAP government's decision to audit their accounts, and termed the exercise as a "political drama" to avoid paying the "funds due" to the civic bodies.

"Its nothing but a political drama as the AAP government wants to delay further payment of funds which it owes to the three municipal corporations. The exercise is against the rules also since Delhi government has no jurisdiction to order audit of autonomous municipal corporations," said Harshdeep Malhotra, Mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) passed a censure motion in its standing committee meeting today condemning AAP government's audit decision.

Malhotra said these corporations are already audited by independent auditors and the government could have the audit reports of previous years to verify utilisation of budget and funds.

"We are audited every year and the government may have the audit report of 2014-15 to satisfy its curiosity," Malhotra said, adding, what would happen if Centre directed audit of Delhi government's spendings and budget utilisation.

The SDMC standing committee passed the censure motion criticising the audit decision as a "political move" by Delhi government, said Leader of House in SDMC, Ashish Sood.

"We oppose politicisation of the whole issue although we welcome them for checking our accounts. We would welcome it more if the government had also announced payment of Rs 3,000 to municipal corporations as per the 3rd Delhi Finance Commission recommendations," Sood said.

Mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Ravinder Gupta alleged it was "an attempt to defame the government.

"Regular auditing framework is already there and the Delhi government cannot carry out a fair audit in such time," he claimed.

The Delhi government today appointed a fact-finding committee to audit the accounts of all the three municipal corporations and directed it to submit its report within a week.

The audit decision has come in the wake of the three mayors meeting the President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday, seeking his intervention for release of funds by Delhi government.

PTI