New Delhi [India], November 18 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged that the AAP authorities has carried out a Rs 3,753 crore price ‘rip-off’ in Delhi Jal Board on the strains of the liquor coverage rip-off and Sheesh Mahal rip-off, each of that are already underneath the scanner of central companies.
The BJP claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party authorities paid an additional 35 per cent in opposition to the allotted finances for the DJB’s venture to provide water tankers within the metropolis.
Addressing a press briefing at BJP headquarters right here, Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi stated that the ‘tanker mafia menace’ within the nationwide capital has grown within the final 10 years.
“They (AAP) came to the power to end the tanker mafia menace, which they alleged were operating under the then Sheila Dixit government in Delhi, but the tanker mafia is still operating today,” She stated, including that the tanker is costing Rs 10,000/- at locations the place the federal government has not laid water pipes within the streets.
“And people have no option, money is collected and given to the tanker mafia. The power of the tanker mafia has not decreased but has increased,” she stated.
The MoS stated that the AAP authorities awarded Delhi Jal Board contracts to their present contractors and the ‘rip-off’ was carried out on comparable strains because it was carried out throughout the renovation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence ‘Sheesh Mahal’.
“(A total of) 12,000 work orders at a cost of Rs 600 crore were awarded. Per order was awarded at less than Rs 5 lakh so that the tendering process could be bypassed and they (the AAP government) can give the work orders to the existing contractors,” Lekhi stated.
She additionally flagged a number of alleged mismatches between the monetary statements of the Delhi Jal Board and the financial institution statements.
“So a total amount of Rs 3,753 crore worth of scam has taken place in DJB and a similar process has been adopted in awarding work like it was done in the Sheesh Mahal scam, where every amount was kept less than Rs 10 crore so that the existing contractors could be contracts without undertaking the process of tendering,” she added.
Addressing the presser, Delhi BJP chief Virendraa Sachdeva stated that an additional 35 per cent of the allotted finances was paid by the AAP authorities in lieu of kickbacks.
“There was a young of Rs 637.23 crore for the tankers. But greater than 35 per cent, which is Rs 215.97 lakh, got unnecessarily, as a result of (they) wished kickbacks, like they did within the excise rip-off.
The central companies are already probing the alleged excise rip-off and AAP’s senior leaders Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia are already in jail on this connection.
The Enforcement Directorate, earlier, claimed that Sanjay Singh and his associates performed a component within the Delhi authorities’s resolution to present licenses to alcohol outlets and retailers in 2020, inflicting losses to the state exchequer and violating anti-corruption legal guidelines.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP questioned CM Kejriwal’s silence and challenged him to refer the DJB case to ED or CBI.
“(When will) Kejriwal, who speaks on every issue, and his minister, Atishi, open their mouths about this scam? If Arvind Kejriwal has courage, then (he should) refer this case of Jal Board to CBI or ED,” the Delhi BJP chief stated.
He stated that if Kejriwal refrains from the CBI investigation, then the BJP will transfer to Delhi LG and demand an investigation into the whole monetary accounts of the Delhi Jal Board. (ANI)