Amid an ongoing tussle with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dispensation, Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to file an FIR against officials of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), bank authorities and private entities for allegedly embezzling `20 crore in water bills.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is the head of the DJB. Sisodia is already facing the heat in the alleged old excise policy and ghost teachers’ scams.
The LG has also asked the Chief Secretary to identify the DJB officials or officers who had been allegedly siphoning off funds, fix responsibility and submit an action taken report within 15 days.
Later in a Press conference on Saturday, DJB vice-chairman and AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj welcomed the Lt Governor’s move saying that Sisodia had also recommended this sort of investigation.
Sources at the Raj Niwas said that the matter had first come to light in 2019 with the allegation that `20 crore collected in water bills from consumers was not deposited in the bank account of the DJB.
The DJB appointed its banker, Corporation Bank, to collect water bills on its behalf through an order in June 2012 for three years, and the same was renewed further in 2016, 2017 and even in 2019, after the fraud was detected,” they said.
The Lt Governor observed that an amount of Rs. 20 crore (including interest, penalty, etc.), though deposited by the consumers had not been transferred into the DJB’s bank account. Despite knowing all this, the Board headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal further extended the contract of Corporation Bank and in turn that of M/s Freshpay IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, which was working as the bank’s collection agent, till 2020, sources said.
However, rather than making the erring vendors pay the swindled Rs 20 Cr and punishing them, the DJB not only extended their contract but increased their service fee from Rs 5 to Rs 6 per bill. Also in baffling contrivance, DJB criminally relaxed the T+1 (Transaction +1) norm that made it mandatory for the vendor to deposit the cash collected from the people in the account of DJB bank account within 24 hrs of the collection which further helped the vendors swindle cash, they alleged.
The Lt-Governor found that bills collected from the people of Delhi in cash were deposited in the Federal Bank and from there it was transferred to the private account of one M/s Aurrum E-Payments Pvt Ltd, rather than getting deposited into the DJB’s bank account, they said.
The deposition of DJB’s cash in some private bank account of a third party was in clear violation of the contract agreement between DJB and Corporation Bank. With ulterior motives of siphoning cash, the Corporation Bank had tacitly approved the arrangement and the DJB officials in connivance did not object to it, despite the fact that this move had put DJB funds at risk, sources informed.
“The default on the part of the bank in the deposition of cash collected from the Kiosks was in the notice of DJB and bank officials right from the beginning; however, no attempt, whatsoever, was ever made to arrest the malpractice or fraud being committed by the private party with the tacit approval of the bank and DJB officials,” sources stated.