As the civic elections in the national Capital drew near, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are continuing to attack each other with the former making an allegation of public funds being squandered by the ruling on “lunches”.
The BJP has alleged that the AAP Government had squandered public funds on lunches at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence last year that cost a whopping Rs13,000 per person.
They also alleged that charge has been denied by the APP vehemently.
Demanding the Government’s resignation, leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta alleged that the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC) had organised two lunch parties last year on February 11 and 12 for 50 and 30 persons respectively which cost over Rs11 lakh.
Union Minister and senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal termed the alleged expenditure “mind-boggling”. “The Government is a custodian of the public funds entrusted to it by the tax payers in the form of exchequer. But Kejriwal and his party have been misusing these funds for the last two years for its political needs and purposes,” Goyal said.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia denied the allegations saying that he had never cleared the file for the expense which was sent to him. “The so-called food bill of Rs13,000 was sent to me by officers for clearance a year back, but I never approved them. The files have been with the then l-G Najeeb Jung’s office for past six months. It seems the l-G’'s office has leaked it now under pressure from the BJP,” he alleged.
Sisodia called it mere attempt to “defame” his party as the civic polls were days away. “The files were being leaked selectively… I dare them to release the file in which I have clearly made a note refusing to clear payment,” he added.
However, Vijender Gupta alleged that the catering arrangements for the lunches at Kejriwal’s residence were made by a leading five-star hotel. The permissible limit under financial rules is Rs1,250 per person for hosting a lunch in non-five star hotels, said the leader of Opposition.
“No codal formalities or financial rules were followed before placing the orders. Two bills were raised by DTTDC for a total amount of Rs11,04,357,” Gupta said, showing the copies of the bills in a Press conference.
He further said that bill for the lunch on February 11 was Rs6,23,605 and the cost per plate was Rs12,472 and price of same plate rose to Rs16,025 for the lunch organised very next day. “This is a criminal waste of Government exchequer by the Kejriwal Government. I urge the l-G to order a high-level enquiry into violation of financial rules by the Kejriwal Government,” Gupta said.