Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Gautam Gambhir on Friday came down heavily on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing him of not building any new school, college or hospital in the past seven years and calling himself a devotee of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
Speaking to ANI, the cricketer-turned-politician levelled allegations of depriving the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) employees of Rs 13,000 crores and not paying their salaries.
"Instead of giving Rs 13,000 crores to the MCD for paying the employees, Delhi government is spending Rs 100 crore every month on advertisements. At the same time, they take Bhagat Singh's name. Bhagat Singh never lied to the citizens of India. In the last seven years, they did not make any new school, college or hospital and then they call themselves devotees of Bhagat Singh," Gambhir said.
He further slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government saying that they have been "lying for the last seven years." Gambhir's statement comes after Kejriwal held a press conference earlier in the day expressing disappointment over the postponement of municipal corporation elections in the national capital.
Kejriwal also alleged that the BJP postponed the municipal polls as it feared its defeat.
The BJP MP also said that with folded hands, they plead Kejriwal to release Rs 13,000 crores for the MCD.
Gambhir said that of all the corporations in Delhi, the EDMC is the poorest. "MCD employees come to our office and cry. They say that they have not received salaries for over a year. We don't have any answer in such situations. Do not play such low-grade politics of using the poor's salary to personal benefits," he said.
Earlier, State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava said that the Centre has deferred the announcement of polling dates for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election after the central government raised a few issues that are yet to be legally examined by the Election Commission.
He also informed that the Centre was planning to introduce a bill in the budget session of Parliament to unify the three municipal corporations of Delhi.
"As central government raised few issues that are yet to be legally examined by us, we will not be able to announce MCD election dates as of now. We will take some more days. We have to conduct the elections before May 18," Srivastava said.
He further said that they were about to announce the dates, but now it will take another five to seven days to announce them.
