Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday released a report card on the BJP-controlled Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and termed it the ‘Most Corrupt Department’.

He further accused the BJP of making Delhi the “garbage capital of India” and claimed that the dump at Ghazipur landfill will “soon cross the height of Taj Mahal”.

Speaking to reporters, Kejriwal said the state of rubbish disposal in the city is making people call it the “garbage capital”, noting that waste management is the responsibility of the MCD.

“The MCD is not able to manage the waste in the city and it has turned Delhi into the garbage capital,” he said, noting garbage dumps are visible across every part of the city.

“This is a matter of shame for Delhi, that Delhi is rated at the bottom position in the BJP’s Swachh Bharat Mission, with Delhi MCDs rated amongst the bottom 10 of the 49 largest cities for cleanliness by Government of India in December 2019.”

Highlighting the inconvenience caused due to the massive dump in Ghazipur, Kejriwal said: “The biggest gift of the BJP to Delhi is the garbage and waste mountain in Ghazipur, which is expected to cross the height of the Taj Mahal in Agra. According to the Supreme Court, the landfill will have to be marked with red lights on top to warn air traffic flying above the dump. What is more worrisome is the fact that only 40 per cent of the garbage in Delhi is processed.”

He also said that even the MCD’s internal audit reveals that it is a den of corruption concealing its financial mess.

“Even a small child is calling it the ‘most corrupt department’,” the Chief Minister said.

He noted that the north zone MCD’s chief auditor has come across financial irregularities of Rs 3,299 crore in the department.

Close to 90 per cent of MCD-run public toilets lack electricity, water, guards or maintenance personnel, while “a majority of these are shut or locked”, he said.

On the other hand, the AAP government has built 20,000 new and well maintained public toilets through the DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board), he added.

Presenting two models of governance as he compared the MCD and the Delhi government’s performance across various departments, Kejriwal expressed confidence that people will vote for the AAP governance model.

He highlighted the loopholes of the MCD across education, healthcare, sanitation, and other significant domains.

Listing the difference in the education levels in primary schools of the MCD and Delhi government senior secondary schools, he said whereas on one hand, the MCD has shut down 109 schools in the last nine years, the Delhi government has opened 20,000 new classrooms in their schools in the last five years.

“This equals setting up an infrastructure for around 500 new schools. The strength of the MCD schools in the last nine years has gone down by 2,50,000. The strength of the MCD schools in 2011-2012 was 9,85,000, that went down to 7,32,000 in 2018-2019.”

About the promises made by the BJP before winning the MCD elections, Kejriwal said: “I believe not even one of them has been fulfilled in the tenure. The AAP has fulfilled all the promises made to the people of Delhi and even outperformed those promises by doing much more than what was promised in the manifesto.”

He said the Delhi Police, which is under the Centre’s control too, are working like the MCD.

“There are 90 per cent chances that the complaint will not be filed by the police in case of an emergency. You all have witnessed the attitude of the Delhi Police in the last few days when the law and order situation in the state is grave. The people now have to decide between the governance of the BJP and the Delhi Police and the governance of the AAP with improvements in the education and health sectors in the city. I hope that the people will cast their votes based on the good governance model of the AAP in Delhi. I know that the people of Delhi do not want Delhi to have the same fate as the MCDs.”

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal further said that there is no point blaming the police for the poor law and order situation as they are just “following the orders from above fearing suspension”.

Earlier on Thursday, Kejriwal had claimed the elections in the country usually witnessed a politics of dividing the people but the February 8 election in Delhi is bringing people close.

Delhi is going to the polls on February 8 as the tenure of Kejriwal as the Chief Minister ends next month. The results of the Assembly election will be declared on February 11.