After Gopal Rai was relieved of the charge of the Transport Department on Tuesday on his request on health grounds, allegations against him are doing the rounds.
Rai had said on Monday he had requested the Chief Minister to relieve him from the Transport Department portfolio as it had a very heavy workload. He has been undergoing physiotherapy, which is expected to last three months at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre and is housed in the hospital.
Responding to the allegations, Rai tweeted, “Some people are spreading lies that I resigned due to the premium bus scheme. There was neither any corruption in that scheme nor have I resigned because of it… I have left the Transport Department due to health reasons. I will continue to work as labour, Employment Development and GAD Minister.”
Also, the Government came to Rai’s defense and expressed “shock” at these allegations. “A section of the media and Opposition parties have colluded to spread such rumors. The Government strongly refutes any wrongdoing in the scheme, in-fact the whole scheme has been put out in the public domain... Several media houses have been running reports on Delhi Minister Gopal Rai since morning that he was relieved of his duties as Transport Minister because of the ACB Probe and ‘scam’ in the Premium Bus Scheme. The Government of Delhi is shocked at such baseless and malicious reportage,” the Government said in a statement.
It said the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) did not summon Rai but he went to the ACB on his own with the documents. “During their talks with Rai, even the ACB Officials admitted that they didn’t have any evidence. They admitted that they have not found anything wrong in the scheme. They were of the view that they don’t have any proof even to lodge an FIR,” it said.
The portfolio of the Transport Department has now been given to Satyendra Jain, known to be close to Kejriwal and already holds key portfolios of PWD, Health, Power and Home.
“The lt Governor of National Capital Territory of Delhi with Chief Minister of National Capital Territory of Delhi is pleased to allocate portfolio of Transport Department to Satyendar Jain, Minister,” a notification issued by GAD on Monday said.
Jain had temporarily taken care of the Transport Department for about 20 days when Rai had undergone a surgery to get a bullet removed from his neck and then physiotherapy treatment in Hyderabad.
The two phases of the odd-even scheme were implemented under the leadership of Rai as Transport Department was involved in the execution of the road-rationing plan on the ground.