Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, June 24: Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay Friday sought the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over water tanker scam, in an increasingly bitter fight with the Aam Aadmi Party, with two sides accusing each other of various scams and crimes.
“Earlier, I had demanded his (Kejriwal’s) resignation and now I demand that the Delhi Police arrest him,” Upadhyay told reporters here. He alleged that Kejriwal “suppressed” for 11 months the report of a fact-finding team that probed the alleged irregularities in hiring 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012 during the tenure of the Congress government headed by Sheila Dikshit.
He also said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader is always busy making false allegations on social media platforms. “Why payments to the private company were carried on for 17 months instead of cancelling it? Why Keshav Chandra, who was earlier private secretary to Dikshit, was made Chief Executive Officer of the Jal Board?” the BJP leader queried.
During the Congress tenure in the national capital, Kejriwal had accused the city government of being involved in the water tanker scam. Upadhyay also dared the chief minister to explain his motive behind pressurising R.S. Tyagi to submit his papers from the Delhi Jal Board. Tyagi was a Joint Engineer with the DJB.
“Water Minister Kapil Mishra gave report of the fact-finding committee to Kejriwal, but why was there a delay in sending the report to the Lt. Governor,” Upadhyay asked. “Why the fact finding team sent the report first to the chief minister and the private vendor? Were they negotiating for money with the private water tanker company?” Upadhyay questioned.
He also asked Kejriwal, “Transaction of how much amount did you carry out with the tanker company?” BJP’s Lok Sabha member from south Delhi Ramesh Bhiduri also attacked the Delhi government and alleged that Kejriwal took Rs 92 crore from the private tanker company.
“Kejriwal took Rs 92 crore from the tanker company,” Bidhuri said, adding, “We will run a signature campaign in every district of Delhi against him.” The AAP government in June 2015 had set up a five-member fact-finding committee to probe the alleged irregularities in hiring 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012 during Dikshit’s tenure.
The report was submitted to Kejriwal in August 2015 highlighting an alleged corruption of Rs 400 crore in the process of awarding tenders for hiring water tankers.
