The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila has no answer to corruption charges: Khurana

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila has no answer to corruption charges: Khurana

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 22. Accusing the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, of having failed to come clean on corruption charges levelled against her and her Government in respect of privatisation of power and water sectors, the former Chief Minister, Madan Lal Khurana, today said an attempt was being made to divert the attention of the people from the "conspiracy'' to sell off Delhi Jal Board assets by projecting the court proceedings in a defamation case as clean chit to Ms. Dikshit.

Addressing a press conference along with the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president, Harsh Vardhan, here, Mr. Khurana said the Delhi Government had no answer to the corruption that had taken place in the under-valuation of Jal Board assets. The Chief Minister had not come clean on the issue of handing over the distribution of water to a multinational private company whose reputation and credibility were under scrutiny. "Even after the exposure on the issue, the Chief Minister still maintains that nothing of this sort is happening. A scam similar to one that had taken place during the privatisation of the power sector was taking place in the Jal Board and the Chief Minister was well aware of this fact,'' he added.

Stating that no such thing like clean chit had been given to the Chief Minister, Mr. Khurana said that it was only a preliminary hearing. In fact, he said, when the defamation suit was filed, he had pleaded with the court to post the matter for day-to-day hearing so that by the time Assembly polls took place the case was complete and Ms. Dikshit was exposed. Stating that he stood by the statement that corruption had taken place during privatisation of power, Mr. Khurana said the tender documents were tampered with and big changes were made at the instance of the Chief Minister and without the consent of the then Lieutenant-Governor, Vijai Kapoor. There is no account of the hundreds of crores that are recoverable from the private distribution companies which itself was a big scam, he said.

Similarly, Dr. Harsh Vardhan charged that even the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) report had clearly indicated a scam worth thousands crores. However, the Sheila Dikshit Government till date had not provided the CAG with any of the documents and every effort was made to subvert any kind of investigation into the whole affair. Further, he said, the former Delhi Power Minister Narendra Nath, was scrutinising the CAG report on power in his capacity as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, which was unfortunate. "Dr. Nath was one of the architects of the power sector reforms and he cannot sit on judgment on the same issue." The BJP had demanded that some other member of the PAC should hear the case in the meetings but that also was not being done indicating that there was a lot to hide.

"The outcome of privatisation of power is now before the people of Delhi. The people of Delhi are being flooded with inflated bills and are burdened by fast running metres. There is no accountability of the private distribution companies and they are virtually having a free run in fleecing the people of the Capital," Dr. Vardhan charged.

Opposing the privatisation of power generation in the Capital, he said that another scam in the shape of privatisation of the Bawana 1000-MW gas-based power project was cooking up. At this, Mr. Khurana intervened and said that during his tenure as Chief Minister of Delhi, nearly 18 objections had been made on the file with regard to handing over Bawana to a private company. "The Delhi Government should also look into those objections before indulging in a scandalous sell-out of public assets."

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