Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Monday sought unconditional apology from Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav, for his remarks alleging exorbitant expenses being incurred on the renovation of Gupta’s residence.
Yadav had alleged that Gupta is renovating his official residence at an expense of `2.35 crore out of which `94.69 lakh is for bathroom and toilets. The Delhi Congress chief had called the Speaker’s residence “Shauchmahal”.
Gupta, in his letter, said, “Regarding your statement alleging exorbitant expenses on the renovation of the Speaker’s Residence in which you stated that the Speaker is renovating the official residence at an expense of `2.35 crore out of which `94.69 lakh is for the bathroom and toilets. It is reported that you have named the Speaker’s residence as ‘Shauchmahal’. You have mentioned the location of the official residence of the Speaker as 9, Shamnath Marg which is not the official residence of the Speaker.”
The letter said that the Speaker has condemned your statements and denied them totally and stated that such statements to the media, without ascertaining the facts or truth, should be avoided.
“He has directed me to inform that you should immediately withdraw your statements and submit an unconditional written apology to him within three days of receipt of this correspondence. He has further directed to inform, especially as you are a former Member of the Delhi Assembly, utmost care and respect should be accorded to the Office of the Speaker and it should not be dragged to score political points,” it further added.