The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress denies bungling in porta cabin issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 17, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress denies bungling in porta cabin issue

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The ruling Congress denied any bungling in the porta cabin issue that rocked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday. Denying the Bharatiya Janata Party councillor, Vijender Gupta's allegations that Rs.30 crores had been wasted in the construction 1,000 porta cabins classrooms, the Committee was told that only Rs.15 crores were spent in the wake of an earlier High Court order for replacing tents with porta cabins in various municipal schools.

Raising the issue, Mr. Gupta alleged that in 2003-04, 1,000 porta cabins of size 16 inch by 16 inch were constructed in bulk by spending Rs.30 crores, and now again an order has been placed for constructing 320 new porta cabins of size 24 inch by 20 inch. "The scheme for providing porta cabins as a substitute to pucca or semi-pucca classrooms in the Corporation is not an economical exercise and should be immediately stopped. The policy of providing porta cabin in MCD primary schools had been adopted with the motive to financially benefit some individual or party," he added.

However, Standing Committee Chairman Mukesh Goel defended the decision by stating that the bigger size of porta cabins that would cost around Rs.3-lakh each were as per the size of tents that were to be replaced with porta cabins that would accommodate at least 50 schoolchildren. "There is no bungling involved and everything is being done in a transparent manner," he asserted.

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