A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation led by Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta called upon Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to highlight the Delhi Government lies as it claimed to have spent the highest amount of funds on education in India.
Terming it a very serious as it violates ‘General Financial Rules’ (GFR) of the Government of India and CPWD (Central Public Works Department) works manual. “The facade of massive propaganda were created by claiming to have constructed 8,089 classrooms during 2015 to 2019 and constructing 12,748 during 2019-20,” he said.
He submitted that they have been openly flouted with impunity. The delegation included MLA OP Sharma, Jagdish Pradhan, Devender Sehrawat and Anil Bajpai besides other.
Gupta charged that the Government has made payment for 8,089 classrooms built up to March 2019 but the physical verification has revealed that less than 6,000 rooms have been constructed. He questioned about the fund meant for construction of 2,000 classrooms.
Baijal assured that he is going to seek the report in the matter from Chief Secretary of the Delhi Government and refer the matter to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on the basis of the report.
Gupta highlighted three alleged violations done by the Government. “The first violation is doing work without calling tenders, enhancing the cost of construction to the tune of 30-90 per cent in name of richer specifications again without calling tender and interchanging the specifications of “construction of rooms” with “equivalent rooms actually constructed” with criminal impunity,” he said.
The second violation is siphoning off the funds. Though the Government claimed 8,089 rooms were built till March this year but physical verification reveals that less than 6000 rooms have been constructed, he said, adding that the third violation is duplicity of works and subsequent duplicate payment.
He said that payment has been made twice for the same work for instance, under the requisition for Extra Ordinary Repairs (EORs), an amount of Rs. 1000 crore was sanctioned during 2016-17 and 2017-18. “Simultaneously, the funds of similar amount were spent from regular head under priority — 1 on the same schools implying that duplicate payment for the same work, he added.