BJP slams Kejriwal after RTI reveals AAP govt gave over Rs 101 crore as grants to Delhi Wakf Board
Citing an RTI response, the BJP claimed that the Kejriwal government does not have money to pay protesting school or college teachers or even Anganwadi workers, but spends crores every year on giving salaries to Imams and funding the Wakf Board.
FollowThe Bharatiya Janata Party has levelled allegations of appeasement politics against the Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, claiming that taxpayers' money worth over Rs 101 crore was granted to the Delhi Wakf Board.
Citing an RTI response, the BJP claimed that the Kejriwal government does not have money to pay protesting school or college teachers or even Anganwadi workers but spends crores every year on giving salaries to Imams and funding the Wakf Board.
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An RTI filed by Ajay Basudev Bose on September 27 seeking details of grants in aid received by the Delhi Wakf Board since 2015 reveals that in the financial year 2021-22 alone, the Wakf Board received Rs 62.57 crore. In the last 7 years, over Rs 101 crore has been granted as aid to the Wakf Board.
The BJP questioned the need to 'fund' the Wakf Board, which has multiple properties.
A breakup of the grants shows:Â
Financial year 2015-16: Rs 1,25,00,000
Financial year 2016-17: Rs 1,37,00,000Â
Financial year 2017-18: Rs 5,00,00,000
Financial year 2018-19: Rs 8,85,69,000
Financial year 2019-20: Rs 22,72,50,000
Financial year 2021-22: Rs 62,57,50,000
The RTI revelation comes at a time when reports have emerged about how a number of Delhi government-funded colleges had been facing a financial crisis due to the non-receipt of grants from the Kejriwal government. Among the Delhi University colleges where ad-hoc teachers, guest teachers and contractual employees faced a financial crisis for over three months included Acharya Narendra Dev College, Bhimrao Ambedkar College, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences, Maharaja Agrasen College, Bhaskaracharya College, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Maharishi Valmiki College, Deendayal Upadhyaya College, Bhagini Nivedita College, Shaheed Sukhdev College and Aditi Mahavidyalaya. After much furore, the Delhi government in October released the grants to the 12 colleges to pay the salary due since three months.
Ahead of Diwali, thousands of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) employees went on strike demanding payment of pending salaries, Diwali bonus and their regularisation. MCD Safai Karmachari Union president Sant Lal Chaurasiya had claimed that one month's salary of the sanitation workers was pending and that they had not received their bonus for the last three years.
Meanwhile, AAP is yet to respond to the BJP's latest salvo.
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