more-in The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday accused the BJP-ruled municipalities of a “major scam” by looting the traders of the city in the name of conversion charges. Addressing the media at the party headquarters, senior leader Dilip Pandey said that first in the form of demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and now with the conversion charges, the BJP has been breaking the backbones of the traders. “The BJP has made the municipalities a den for corruption. In the name of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee and conversion charges, the BJP is not only sealing the shops but is also running a nexus,” he said. He added that for years, the civic bodies have been collecting thousands of crores as conversion charges, along with registration and parking fees from traders, but now the BJP leaders are not able to explain where this money went. Mr. Pandey said that AAP MLA from Tilak Nagar Jarnail Singh, who is also the elected representative of the Delhi government at the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) House, had in an RTI sought details of the money collected by the civic body as conversion charges. “The reply has brought forth a ?1,000-crore corruption scam. They have collected ?966 crore as conversion charges and ?61 crore as parking fees from the traders. Despite paying these charges in advance these traders are facing sealing,” Mr. Pandey said. Escrow account The AAP also alleged that as per rules, the money collected as conversion and parking charges must be deposited in an escrow account and be only utilised for beautifying and constructing parking spaces for these markets. However, they have deposited the money in a general account and have been misusing it. “For the last decade, the BJP has converted the municipality into a collection agency,” he said.

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