New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS): The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) here on Saturday claimed an audit of the BJP-run South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had exposed scam worth thousands of crores.

Based on the audit report, placed before the standing committee on Thursday, the AAP would file a complaint with the anti-corruption branch, said Saurabh Bhardwaj, AAP legislator. "There is not a single SDMC department in which corruption has not been unearthed," he said.

On the specific cases of corruption, he said, "The MCD has an outstanding balance of Rs 1,177 crore property tax, but the leadership lined it's own pockets instead of recovering the money."

The AAP spokesperson said there were a lot of irregularities in collection of commercial properties tax as well. "The report said well-known farm houses where the rich and powerful host weddings have been shown as agriculture land by the MCD and less taxes are being collected, causing huge losses to the SDMC."

The report mentions about four such properties, which account for non-collection of Rs 4,49,99,422 taxes, he said. "There are a lot of such properties in South Delhi, whose taxes are being manipulated by the BJP leaders and MCD officials," he said.

The AAP leader said the internal audit department of the MCD has also revealed shocking facts. "Only 147 units have been audited by internal audit, which is only 4 per cent of the total units of the SDMC. The rule states that 100 per cent audit is necessary."

Bhardwaj said, the central audit report had cast shadow on the Vigilance Department, whose job was to prevent corruption. "According to the report, 313 regular departmental actions were directed to the Vigilance Department. The charge sheet was filed in only 165 cases. For the remaining 148 cases, the charge sheets have not been issued for many years."

Bhardwaj also said as per the report, most cell phone towers in Delhi were illegal. "The fixed MCD fees for setting up the tower is Rs 1 lakh. The MCD has not collected even that fee from towers under its legal purview. According to the report, 1,672 people filed applications for installation of cell phone towers. Of this, only 659 were allowed to install towers. All the towers are running under the supervision of the MCD and the Delhi Police."

Demanding a probe and action against the MCD officials, he said, "The MCDs withholds salaries of sanitation workers, doctors every two-four months. Instead of collecting crores of rupees, BJP leaders lined their own pockets and bankrupted the municipal corporation," said Bhardwaj.