Defending itself over various findings of an audit report by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, which highlighted financial irregularities of around ₹1,600 crore, leaders of the political wing of the civic body addressed a press conference on Thursday.
Standing Committee Chairperson Bhupendra Gupta said among the ₹1,177 crore of property tax not collected, as reported, a large part of the money was tied up in court cases and since the time of the report, around ₹200 crore had been collected.
Apart from this, he claimed that the cost overrun of ₹32.08 crore for the building of a multi-specialty hospital at Kalkaji had taken place as the government had stopped funding the project.
The corporation had to fund the project, he said, adding that meanwhile, the cost had gone up.
Cost escalation
With regard to cost escalations over parking projects in the SDMC’s jurisdiction, Mr. Gupta said according to replies sought from officials, the hike was due to additional parking space being created at these sites.
Attacking the Aam Admi Party, which had earlier highlighted findings of the report alleging large scale corruption in the municipal corporation, Mr. Gupta said the party regularly made such claims and later backtracked.
However, he said he was under no impression that everything was fine with the SDMC and that the report was still being examined.
In case, serious lapses are identified, they would be investigated, Mr. Gupta added.