Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday wrote a second letter to lieutenant governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena demanding a probe into alleged corruption of ₹6,000 crore in the state civic body’s toll tax collections, and pointing to a missive he sent to the LG’s office over the same matter in August.
The letter marks the latest chapter in the ever-evolving tussle between the LG and the Delhi government.
In a letter sent to Saxena on August 10, Sisodia had asked that “strict action” be taken against officials and politicians alleging a loss of ₹6,000 crore to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On Wednesday, Sisodia wrote that his first letter was not acknowledged.
“You have not even issued an acknowledgement of my letter. Maybe you are unable to see this corruption despite so much evidence, as this corruption has been carried out during BJP’s tenure,” Sisodia said in his letter on Wednesday.
The LG’s office and MCD spokespersons did not respond to requests seeking comment.
Sisodia also accused the LG of levelling “fake allegations” and ordering probes against the elected government.
His letter came a day after Saxena ordered a probe into alleged irregularities in the state’s power subsidy scheme — the latest in a long list of investigations that the LG has either initiated or given assent to.
In June, Saxena asked the Delhi anti-corruption bureau to probe alleged irregularities in the construction of seven temporary Covid-19 hospitals in Delhi. The next month, he ordered a CBI to probe alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s new excise policy — a direction that led to the regime being withdrawn and Sisodia’s house being searched by the central agency.
In August, he sought a report on the delay in action being taken after a vigilance report allegedly found irregularities in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools. In September, Saxena directed another CBI probe, this time into alleged discrepancies in the purchase of low-floor buses in 2019.
The AAP government has dismissed all the allegations and said these were part of a targeted effort by the central government, which nominates the Delhi LG, to throw the party’s election campaigns in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat off-track.
In his August letter, Sisodia said a private firm had, “in connivance with the MCD” syphoned off crores from over a million commercial vehicles that enter Delhi every day through 124 border entry points in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
“These include tempos, taxis and trucks. All these commercial vehicles pay toll tax to MCD, ranging from ₹100 to ₹1,200” he said.
“MCD awarded a tender to a private company for toll tax collection in 2017 at a contract rate of ₹1,200 crore per annum… The company paid the full amount to MCD in the first year, but in connivance with MCD, it reduced giving the collected tax to the civic agency to just 20-30%. The corporation, which should have cancelled the tender, blacklisted the company and then issued a tender to a new company. But it has done nothing for four years,” he said .
On Wednesday, he said the probe into the liquor policy has not been able to prove the allegations of corruption.
“Nothing was found during CBI raids on my house and after checking my bank lockers. You also ordered probes in construction of school classrooms but nothing was found in that probe either. Now you have ordered an investigation in the power subsidy case and, just like all other probes, this will also lead to nothing,” Sisodia said.
He alleged that instead of working to improve the lives of common people, the LG is overstepping constitutional boundaries by interfering in issues related to the elected government.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Sisodia’s letter to LG was an example of the AAP’s “political frustration”.
“The AAP has misused the governance opportunity to mint money for political expansion, and the exposure of their scams has ensured that the party will face total rejection by the electorate of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,” Kapoor said.
