Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal, Manoj Tiwari spar over central funds

NEW DELHI: The war of words between chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari intensified on Sunday over granting of funds to the three municipal corporations.

On Thursday, Tiwari had tweeted that instead of worrying about the state of cleanliness in Delhi, the chief minister of Delhi should rather transfer Rs10,000 crore assistance it got from the central government to municipal corporations.

Replying to the tweet, the AAP leader on Sunday said the Centre has given only Rs 325 crore to Delhi instead of Rs10,000 crore as mentioned by the BJP leader. “Please tell the Centre to send Rs10,000 you are referring to directly to the corporations. Hope Delhi government will not be required to give any money to the civic bodies in future,” Kejriwal wrote in Hindi on the microblogging site.

Replying to the CM, Tiwari tweeted that he was ready to debate with Kejriwal on the issue. He, however, demanded that the Kejriwal should first reduce tax on diesel and petrol by Rs 5 per litre to help the people of Delhi. Tiwari had also alleged that Centre had given Rs36,776 crore in 2014 to Delhi, which had increased to Rs 48,000 crore now.

The Aam Aadmi Party members also charged the BJP chief of lying and misleading the people of Delhi on the issue of financial assistance given by the Union government to the state on Sunday. AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that Tiwari was a “serial liar” and asked him to apologise to the people of Delhi.