Congress Delhi unit president Ajay Maken on Friday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government of compromising national security by awarding a contract to install CCTVs to a Chinese firm ‘Hikvision’, even as the AAP claimed that efforts were on to halt the project.
Maken sought Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation over the issue. “The Delhi Congress has will hold a demonstration outside the residence of CM if he does not resign,” he said.
Maken also said the Congress will also approach the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and even the court of law for a thorough enquiry into this scam.
He also presented a purported transcript of a conversation involving a Delhi Congress leader and an official of Prama Hikvision India Pvt. ltd., Chandra Shekhar, in which the latter accepted getting the order from the Delhi Government’s Public Works Department (PWD) for installing CCTV cameras in the national Capital.
Addressing the media on Friday, Maken alleged that the first tender for the installation of CCTV cameras was floated in November 2017 but was rejected by the Government and a second tender was floated in January 2018 to help the company bag the contract.
“The AAP dispensation is claiming that the contract for CCTV camera installation has been given to public sector unit BEl. But, the first tender was rejected because Hikvision was not in the vendor list of Bharat Electronic limited (BEl). later on (BEl) list was updated in fourth quarter of 2017-18 and Prama Hikvision India Pvt. ltd. was included in it along with other vendors,” he said.
Maken also alleged that two officials of Hikvision had attended a PWD meeting on February 6 this year, along with a BEl official, for examining of technical-cum-commercial bid for the project.
He also said that the initial cost for the CCTV camera project was for Rs 130 crore when it was decided in October 2015 but the cost was hiked to Rs 571.40 crore by relaxing the tender conditions for the same project. He said that the first bid for the installation of CCTV cameras started on November 1, 2017 and ended on December 6, 2017 whereas the second tender bid started on January 9, 2018 and ended on January 30, 2018.
“Till the third quarter, Hikvision was not in the Venders’ list of BEl and it was included in the vendors’ list of BEl in the fourth quarter, and only after this retender amounting to Rs 571.40 crore was finalised,” Maken claimed.