On Sunday, The Aam Aadmi Party hit out at the BJP over the poor rankings of Delhi's two of the three municipal corporations in the Central government's cleanliness survey, saying it has caused "embarrassment" to the people of the city.
The BJP, however, blamed the AAP government for the rankings and accused it of "denying full funds" to the municipal corporations, thus "hampering development and sanitation services".
Two of the three municipal corporations in Delhi have finished in the bottom 10 among 48 cities of the country in a specific category of the government's cleanliness survey, results for which were announced on Saturday. While the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has ranked 45, down from its 43rd position among 47 cites in the Swachh Survekshan 2020; the East Delhi corporation stood at 40th position in the 2021 survey, while the South Delhi corporation remained on 31st slot, as in the previous survey.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation has marginally improved its position, as it was ranked 46th in the last survey. The three municipal corporations in Delhi, ruled by the BJP, have been ranked in the category of cities with a population of over 10 lakh. The survey is conducted under the aegis of the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs every year.
"In the Swachhata Rankings of the central government, all the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations have failed miserably. They have not even been able to make it to the list of top 20 cities," the AAP's chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told a press conference. He alleged that the Delhi BJP has "embarrassed" the people of the city because of the poor ranking of the municipal corporations.
"The BJP has no right to remain at the helm of affairs at the municipal corporations if it cannot fulfil its basic responsibility of keeping Delhi clean," Bharadwaj added. In a statement, the Delhi BJP accepted that the ranking of the civic bodies in the sanitation survey was not "satisfactory" but asked what cooperation has the AAP government extended to the municipal corporations to improve "sanitation standards" in the city.
The BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor alleged that "denial of full funds" under the fifth Delhi Finance Commission and "withholding of funds" under third and fourth DFCs recommendation is affecting the Delhi municipal corporations' development and sanitation maintenance services.
"Today, municipal corporations do not have money to bring new sanitation workers even as half of the posts in sanitation department are lying vacant. There is no money to buy sanitation machines," he said.
-With PTI Inputs
