The Hindu : New Delhi News : Changing equations in Delhi Congress?

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Friday, Apr 27, 2007
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Changing equations in Delhi Congress?

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

DJB Vice-Chairman Bhisham Sharma's press meet `stalled'

NEW DELHI: The registration of a corruption case by the Central Bureau of Investigation against former Delhi Jal Board Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Mohan for allegedly receiving a bribe from Kaveri Infrastructure Private Limited owner Vijay Kataria has brought about a sudden change in the political equations in the Delhi unit of the Congress and turned sworn enemies into friends.

Within Congress circles it is well known that Mr. Kataria was close to a high-profile leader from South Delhi. And so when the CBI raided 13 premises in and around Delhi in connection with the case this leader got pro-active and the first thing he did was to stall a press conference that had been called by Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairman Bhisham Sharma on the issue.

Hitherto a staunch critic of the manner in which the Delhi Jal Board was being run as also the Delhi Government, Mr. Sharma was also known for raising issues of public importance at all major forums including the Delhi Assembly. In the past he had also made allegations about how some Delhi Jal Board contracts had not been planned and executed properly and yet the payments had been made. But on Wednesday, Mr. Sharma cancelled the press conference due to some "personal reasons". The cancellation came at a time when it was being expected that he would come out with some revelations on the issue and work towards ridding the Jal Board of corruption.

A senior Congress MLA charged that there had been a trade-off under which one section of the party would go slow on corruption in the Jal Board while the other would help stifle the demands being made by some party MLAs that the matter pertaining to corruption exposed by the Public Accounts Committee in the power privatisation process in Delhi be recommended for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Incidentally, when the report of the PAC was presented in the Delhi Assembly, it was the will of the House that the matter be probed by the CBI to identify and fix the responsibility on the corrupt officials and politicians.

The Delhi Governmenthas remained silent on this issue while stating that all the relevant files had been forwarded to the Central Vigilance Commission. And recently, when questioned Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had stated that the Government had submitted an action taken report to the Speaker and it was now for him to decide on the matter. But his decision is still awaited.

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