New Delhi, Jul 17 (PTI) Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood claimed on Thursday that AAP leaders, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, purchased multiple top-of-the-line mobile phones when the party was in power in the national capital.
Sood said according to an official circular of 2013, the chief minister and other ministers of Delhi were entitled to purchase mobile phones worth Rs 50,000 and Rs 45,000 respectively, but Kejriwal, holding the top post from 2015 to 2022, bought four latest models of iPhones worth lakhs of rupees.
Similarly, Sisodia purchased five costly phones, including three iPhones, between 2017 and 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader claimed, adding that former chief minister Atishi had also bought an iPhone in 2023.
Sood claimed that often the costly mobile phones were purchased by Kejriwal and others and then post-facto approvals were given as those were on the higher side of the stipulated reimbursements.
The minister’s attack on Kejriwal and Sisodia came close on the heels of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slamming the Delhi government over the revised ceiling of mobile-phone reimbursements for the chief minister and other ministers.
In an office memo issued on July 9, the General Administration Department (GAD) of the city government revised the ceilings for the cost of mobile handsets and monthly charges payable to service providers by the chief minister and other ministers.
The upper limit of the mobile handset price for the chief minister has now been set at Rs 1.5 lakh, while for the other ministers, it is Rs 1.25 lakh. The monthly call charges have been fixed in accordance with the actual bills.
AAP’s Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj took a dig at the city government over the rate revision, saying although the BJP did not fulfil any of its promises made to the people of Delhi, at least the chief minister and other ministers have been benefitted. PTI VIT RC
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