AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj. (File)Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj has hit out at Delhi L-G VK Saxena, alleging that he was targeting the government to draw attention away from his “wrongdoings”. Bharadwaj was reacting to reports that Saxena had written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) again, asking the agency to add allegations of improper tendering for 1,000 buses for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to an ongoing investigation in the annual maintenance contracts for buses that were to be bought for the city.
“The L-G has constitutional obligations. What sort of a man is he? (Someone who) picks up some old matter every day and tries to attack his own government for it. But when allegations of corruption are levelled against him, he does not want any inquiries. When Vinai Saxena was the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) chairperson, three big allegations were made against him. First was that during demonetisation, he got his old demonetised notes exchanged illegally. This was said by the Khadi Gramodyg Bhawan cashiers. We asked for an inquiry but he is not ready for that,” Bharadwaj said.
The two cashiers who made the allegations have been named as accused in the CBI chargesheet that was filed in the matter. The trial is underway. Saxena is not an accused. He has sent a legal notice to the AAP and five of its leaders for their allegations.
Bharadwaj said that the second allegation was that Saxena had asked his daughter to design the Khadi Lounge in Mumbai without following any procedure. “For everything in the government, a procedure has to be followed. Your daughter can’t get it in any case. But the L-G does not want any inquiry. Then a couple of days ago, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh showed an order of the Patna High Court which said that all Khadi Gramodyog employees should be paid directly in bank accounts. But in Khadi, out of 4.55 lakh employees, only 1.95 lakh are being paid in bank accounts. They said the others were paid in cash but there is a scope of corruption there. We said an inquiry must be done but he (L-G) is running away,” Bharadwaj said.
Responding to allegations that there is corruption in the purchase of 1,000 buses, Bharadwaj said, “The CBI started a preliminary inquiry on this a year and a half ago. They sent that complaint to the CBI again three weeks ago and now have sent it the third time. But, not a single bus has been bought till date. Not a single rupee worth of payment has been made. We stopped the tender orders for the inquiry. The procedure had been on hold for almost two years. Now the L-G wakes up and says inquire. The L-G is not a private employee. He is in a government post. If a man with integrity is accused of something, he says conduct an inquiry. We also say the same thing but Vinai Saxena is running away, he is threatening defamation and is saying he will not allow any inquiries. Allegations have been made, and you are running away and doing new dramas every day to take focus away from them,” Bharadwaj said.