If Kejriwal does not release fund on time, sanitation workers may throw garbage on his face: Manoj Tiwari

I think what the Congress has done to Delhi in 15 years and how the AAP has performed in last two years are not hidden. Since the BJP has more councillors in the MCD, funds for the civic bodies were intentionally not released on time to create panic. They did this to make people suffer. We are fighting against this and we are confident that we will win against all odds. We will defeat both Congress and AAP. They are two sides of the same coin. They have formed government together in past. BJP will retain MCD.

You are an MP representing a constituency in North East Delhi where the municipal body is facing a huge revenue crisis. How do you look to solve the issues plaguing the EDMC?

You have to agree that Delhi is divided into Delhi government and MCD. So if it’s two halves, then budget should also be divided equally. Out of the total Rs 48,000 crore budget of Delhi government, Rs 24,000 crore should got to MCD. But allocation to the MCD is very less. At least Rs 9,000 crore which is for the MCD by Centre, it should be given on time. But it is not done. I don’t think it’s justice. We will soon sit with the home ministry and we are trying that since Delhi is a national capital territory, the allocated budget for the MCD should directly go to it rather than going through Delhi government. This will end the tussle between the Delhi government and the MCD. And we are surely going to do this when we come to power.

Are you satisfied with the work done by your councillors in last five years?

The fact is that you will feel proud of the work done by the MCD in last five years. Do you know that MCD has set up medical college. Do you know that with the use of LED, the MCD has saved Rs 153 crore. Do you know that the EDMC despite the financial crunch, has renovated 212 schools and set up 55 new schools. So these are numbers you should be proud of.

So if the work done by the MCD is so satisfying, why the sitting councillors were not given ticket?

Just that we wanted to bring new faces. All our councilors did a fantastic job. Arvind Kejriwal may have done negative campaign against our councillors. But that didn’t affect us. It is just that new people should also get opportunities.

But why the distribution of ticket delayed so much. Nomination of four of your candidates were rejected by the EC. Don’t you think it could have been avoided if ticket was distributed earlier. Is this not creating a rift within the party.

See there were a large number of aspirants for ticket when we decided not to give ticket to sitting councillors. And we did not want to leave their applications unaddressed. We considered all CVs and that took time. There is no other reason.

Arvind Kejriwal has promised to waive property tax if voted to power in MCD. Do you think the promise will help him get more votes?

Kejriwal doesnt know that property tax is not the issue of people of Delhi. The real issue is unauthorised colonies. The sowrd of ceiling is always hanging on the head of people leaving in unauthorised colonies. He should address these issues. He should understand that tax is collected so that government can provide facilities to people. Today you are saying you wont collect tax. Tomorrow you will say since we have not taken tax why should we give you facilities. He should stop fooling the people

He has asked for elections through ballot paper. He has alleged that EVMs were tampered with in the recent state polls. How do you see this?

He is a person who cannot accept his defeat. What can we say.

There have been five strikes by the sanitation workers in last one year. Delhi faced severe garbage crisis. Ho do you plan to check this from happening again?

It’s again fund problem as I said. They are poor labourers. All they want is payment of their dues on time. And if that is stopped what should they do. You should be thankful that they are leaving garbage of road and not throwing it on your face. I can assure you that if people like Kejriwal and Congress men stop their payment, sanitation workers will start throwing garbage on their face.