Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Vijender Gupta on Wednesday stated that his complaint regarding alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), submitted to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), has been forwarded to the concerned official of the Vigilance Department to initiate a probe into the matter.
The BJP leader has claimed that once the investigation is completed, corruption involving Aam Aadmi Party leaders will be exposed to the people of Delhi.
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According to Gupta, his complaint, dated September 5, was referred by the CVC to the Chief Secretary, who is also the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the state government, for investigation.
Acting on this, the CVO handed over all the relevant documents to the Principal Secretary of the Vigilance Department to initiate the investigation process.
The BJP leader further mentioned that he had filed a complaint regarding serious financial irregularities in the DJB. He added that on March 15 earlier this year, the then Chief Secretary had submitted a report to the Delhi Assembly, detailing alleged financial irregularities in the water board, to the Water Minister.
However, Gupta alleged that the Water Minister concealed the report and did not distribute it to the Assembly members.
Gupta has claimed that the said report revealed that in the last ten years, the Jal Board had taken loans amounting to Rs 73,000 crore, which the water agency is now unable to repay.
The report also highlighted various financial irregularities, Gupta added.
Gupta alleged that the Water Minister was aware that if the report were made public, the corruption and misappropriation of crores of rupees by the AAP government would be exposed.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly further alleged that the Delhi government deliberately did not prepare the balance sheet of the water board after 2018 to prevent the detection of corruption within the agency.
He noted that after the intervention of the High Court, the state government prepared balance sheets for the first three years, but the balance sheets for the next two years, 2021-22 and 2022-23, have not yet been prepared, Gupta claimed.
Gupta further claimed that this is the reason why the CAG has not been able to audit the expenditures of the Jal Board.
“This clearly indicates a deep conspiracy to cover up financial irregularities and corruption,” added the BJP leader.
Gupta has also alleged that the DJB is not able to fully utilize the funds allocated to it in the budget, claiming that Rs 210 crore from the 2021-22 budget remained unspent, and in the 2022-23 budget, Rs 3,035 crore were left unused, he added.
