|HT|
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has not found anything in 1.5 years even after registering a preliminary inquiry into the allegations of “scam” in procurement of 1,000 air-conditioned buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed on Sunday.
The remarks came amid reports that the lieutenant governor (LG) cleared a proposal by chief secretary Naresh Kumar to forward a complaint, linked to the alleged corruption in the procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses by DTC, to CBI.
“No bus was procured under the procurement plans and no contract was awarded and the process was put on hold after the inquiry started into the process, so there is no question of corruption,” AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said at a press conference in New Delhi on Sunday.
“Not a single rupee payment was made. The government put the tendering process on hold after the inquiry started; with plans to re-start the process only after the inquiry is over,” he said.
He added that the former LG had formed a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry and gave a clean chit to the AAP government.
“The BJP has been claiming that the AAP government has not procured buses. And whenever the AAP government floated tenders for procurement of buses, the BJP lodged complaints against it because they do not want the buses to be procured,” he said.
Hitting out at the BJP, Bharadwaj said: “Make it clear whether any corruption is there so that the government can scrap it and start a fresh tender. And if there has not been any corruption, we can restart the process.”
He added that the AAP welcomes all kinds of inquiries and investigation. “The AAP MP and MLAs have levelled charges of corruption against LG, but the LG is not ready for probe. The LG threatened us with defamation notices, but we are not afraid, and we will continue to raise questions,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction from CBI, LG and the BJP.
Earlier, PTI reported that Delhi LG V K Saxena has approved a proposal to forward a complaint to CBI to probe the alleged corruption in the procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses by DTC. CBI is already conducting a preliminary inquiry into the matter and Saxena approved the clubbing of the current complaint with the complaint already being inquired into by the central probe agency, the report added.
A complaint addressed to Saxena in June this year claimed that the appointment of the Minister of Transport as the chairman of the committee for tendering and procurement of buses by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) was done in a “premeditated manner”.
It also alleged that the appointment of DIMTS as bid management consultant for this tender was done with an aim to facilitate wrongdoing. The complaint alleged irregularities in a July 2019 procurement bid for 1,000 low floor BS-IV and BS-VI buses and another bid made in March 2020 for the purchase and annual maintenance contract for low floor BS-VI buses.
The complaint was forwarded to the chief secretary on July 22 to seek comments from the departments of the Delhi government and consequently their recommendations. The chief secretary submitted his report on August 19, pointing out certain “irregularities”, according to the report.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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