Probe allegation of scam in classroom work: Delhi Lokayukta

NEW DELHI: Hearing a complaint of alleged financial irregularities in the construction of classrooms in schools run by the state government, Delhi Lokayukta on Friday directed the chief secretary to furnish the response of the department concerned after conducting an inquiry.
In 2019, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari had alleged financial irregularities in the construction of 12,782 classrooms in government schools in the city at an expenditure of Rs 2,892 crore. He had complained to the Lokayukta, claiming that the work could have been done with a maximum spending of around Rs 800 crore.
Reacting to the development, the Delhi government said it welcomes the Lokayukta's order seeking its response on the issue. “Earlier too, ACB, Delhi Police, CBI and ED have investigated our projects. We have always come out with a clean chit. The complaint furnished to the Lokayukta is completely baseless and false. We are confident that we'll come out clean this time too,” the government said in a statement.
BJP’s North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari was present in the Lokayukta court along with West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma. “Lokayukta has asked the chief secretary of the Delhi government for an inquiry and sought a report by October,” Tiwari said.
Lokayukta Justice Harish Chandra Mishra, after hearing the counsel for the complainant, said that he felt it appropriate to seek a response from the Delhi government over the complaint before proceeding further in the matter.
He directed for sending the complaint and related affidavit to the chief secretary, Delhi government, to get a response to the allegations from the appropriate department, if necessary, after conducting an inquiry,
The Lokayukta has fixed October 20 as the next date of hearing expecting that the response of the department concerned will be filed by then.
The BJP leaders, including Tiwari, had alleged a "scam" in construction of classrooms claiming the cost was raised to as much as Rs 28 lakh per classroom as compared to the normal cost of around Rs 5 lakh.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, had filed a defamation case against Tiwari and other BJP leaders for allegedly levelling charges against him on the issue.
He had claimed that all the allegations made by the BJP leaders jointly and individually were false, defamatory and derogatory with an intention to harm and damage his reputation and goodwill.
The ACB or Delhi government’s anti-corruption branch had in June initiated an investigation into a complaint filed by BJP functionaries alleging a scam of Rs 2,000 crore by ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain in the construction of schools/rooms. The ACB sought documents related to the complaint and sent a notice to complainants Kapil Mishra, Harish Khurana and Neelkanth Bakshi.
The ACB had said that a complaint was submitted to Delhi Police on July 2, 2019, which was forwarded to it for necessary action.