Lokayukta seeks Delhi chief secy’s response on alleged inconsistencies in classrooms construction

Complainant northeast Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari was present in Lokayukta court along with his west Delhi counterpart Parvesh Verma for a hearing in his complaint.

Tiwari stated, “Lokayukta has asked the chief secretary of Delhi government for an enquiry and furnish the report by October.”

In a statement, the Delhi government said it welcomed the Lokayukta’s order pursuing its response on the issue.

“Earlier too, the ACB, Delhi Police, CBI, 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 Delhi government statement read.

Tiwari had filed a complaint with Lokayukta in 2019 alleging financial irregularities in the construction of the additional classrooms in the schools of Delhi government’s Education department in different parts of the city.

Lokayukta Justice Harish Chandra Mishra after hearing the counsel for the complainant, stated that he deemed it appropriate to seek a response from Delhi government over the complaint before proceeding further in the matter.

Mishra directed for sending the complaint and related affidavit to Chief Secretary of Delhi government to receive the response to the allegations from the concerned department, if necessary, upon an appropriate investigation.

The Lokayukta fixed 20 October as the next date of hearing, expecting a response to be filed by the concerned department of the AAP-led Delhi government by then.

The BJP leaders including Tiwari had alleged a “scam” in construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools, claiming the cost was raised to as high as Rs 28 lakh per classroom as against the normal cost of approximately Rs 5 lakh.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia who also holds Education portfolio had filed a defamation case against Tiwari and other BJP leaders for allegedly levelling charges against him on the subject.

He had claimed that all the allegations made by the BJP leaders both jointly and individually were false, defamatory and derogatory with an intention to harm and damage his reputation and goodwill.

(With inputs from PTI)

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