The raging war between Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and the AAP Government in Delhi continued unabated with the LG forwarding a complaint against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over an alleged scam in property sales, while the AAP hit back at the LG by alleging that during his a tenure as KVIC chairman serious corruption took place through payment of nearly 2.5 lakh ghost workers in cash every month.
The complaint that the
L-G forwarded alleged that Kejriwal sold three commercial plots in Bhiwani for `4.54 crore but showed a grossly undervalued price of `72.72 lakh on paper on the same day.
Meanwhile, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur slammed Kejriwal on his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that more than 80 per cent Government schools in the country are worse than junkyards.
“It’s unfortunate when those busy with liquor stores call schools a junkyard,” Thakur said. His cabinet colleagues Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said it was unfortunate that Kejriwal made a comparison of Government schools with “kabadkhana” (junkyards) and dubbed him as “Bayan Bahadur” who should not be taken seriously.
The complaint against the Delhi CM alleged that Kejriwal sold the plots through his wife Sunita Kejriwal at a market rate of `45,000 per square yard but showed the transaction at the rate of a meager `8,300 per sq yard on papers. It alleged that Kejriwal duped the exchequer of `25.93 lakh in stamp duty and `76.4 lakh as capital gain tax. The Lt Governor office received a copy of the complaint on August 28, addressed to Delhi Lokayukta against Chief Minister, demanding an inquiry.
“In the process, Arvind Kejriwal and his wife evaded 'stamp duty' of Rs. 10.68 lakh on the plot of 416 sq yard, Rs 8.73 lakh on the plot measuring 340 sq yard and Rs 6.52 lakh on the plot measuring 254 sq yards causing a cumulative loss of Rs 25.93 lakh to the State exchequer,” alleged the complainant.
Talking to reporters after the Cabinet briefing, Thakur said it was “unfortunate” that those busy with “sharabkhana” were calling the schools “kabadkhana”, alluding to the allegations of a liquor scam under Kejriwal Government in Delhi.
“PM-SHREE scheme will benefit 20 lakh students through development of 14,597 model schools in the country,” Thakur said.
Pradhan while hitting out at the Delhi Chief Minister said that despite “loud mouthed” claims by the Kejriwal Government, Delhi fell behind the national average and a smaller UT like Chandigarh, in parameters of student enrolments, quality of education, opening of new schools and recruitment of new principals.
“Some people have assumed issuing statements as a work for themselves. I want to call them “Bayan Bahadur”. There are people who work and there are others who just give statements,” Pradhan said replying to a question about Kejriwal's letter.
“Is this how you say in Hindi literature -- sarkari schools are worse than kabadkhana,” Pradhan said further.
Meanwhile, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged hat Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena misappropriated crores of rupees making payments to “ghost artisans” when he was the chairman of the KVIC, demanding his “immediate” sacking and a probe against him by the central agencies.
Addressing a press conference, Singh backed his claims referring to a 2016 Patna High Court order on payment of wages to artisans and findings of a CVC inquiry into alleged disbursement of crores of rupees to “ghost artisans”.
As he made the allegations, he tore the defamation notice sent to him by the LG recently, saying such notices can neither intimidate him nor stop him from “telling the truth”. The AAP leader also asked Saxena to respond to his allegations using his personal social media handle, saying the official handle of the Raj Niwas “belongs to the Delhi LG, not you”.
“Delhi LG V K Saxena is a very corrupt and dishonest person. When he was the chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), he gobbled crores of rupees of at least 2.5 lakh workers, who did sewing and embroidery work, and turned the KVIC into a den of corruption,” Singh told reporters.