New Delhi: The Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has booked former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and former cabinet minister Satyendra Jain for alleged misappropriation of funds worth Rs 2,000 crore in construction of school classrooms during the rule of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The FIR has been filed based on a complaint from leaders from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including cabinet minister Kapil Mishra, in July 2019 that as many as 12,748 school classrooms were built at an overall cost of Rs 2,892 crore.
The complaint alleged that contracts were awarded at the rate of Rs 24.86 lakh per classroom, while they could be constructed at around Rs 5 lakh. Additionally, it was alleged that contracts for these construction work were awarded to 34 contractors, the majority of which were related to the ruling dispensation.
“The costs have allegedly been inflated nearly fivefold to defraud the general public and siphon off funds from the public exchequer under the guise of construction expenses. It has been alleged that even a 5-star hotel’s luxury construction cost is around Rs 5,000 to Rs 5,500 per ft despite using superior and costly materials, whereas cheaper materials are used in the school projects,” says the FIR, a copy of which ThePrint has seen.
It adds, “It is alleged that the scam could not have been executed without collusion among officials of various departments, motivated by personal gain. The role of Manish Sisodia, Minister of Education, and Satyendra Jain, Minister of Public Works Department, GNCTD, requires a thorough investigation, as such a large-scale scam could not have been executed without the knowledge, involvement, or negligence of the ministers concerned.”
The FIR comes more than a month after President Droupadi Murmu had okayed its registration against Jain and Sisodia in the case. Jain was the PWD and urban development minister, while Sisodia held the education portfolio in the AAP government.
The entire case proceedings began when Mishra, Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana, and BJP’s media coordinator Neelkanth Bakshi approached the Delhi Police seeking action based on documents acquired by them related to construction of 18 class rooms in a Burari school for Rs 12 crore.
AAP chief spokesperson Anurag Dhandha took potshots at the BJP government, saying that it would also some day file a case complaining Sisodia’s elevation to a government post or for missing a comma or full stop on government documents.
“It’s not a coincidence that Durgesh Pathak was booked and raided days after his elevation as Gujarat poll in charge. Similarly, Manish Sisodia and Jain have been booked after becoming Punjab poll in-charges. It’s a clear political case to intimidate the party. They should know the AAP leaders are not scared of threats and cases by the ED and the CBI,” Dhandha said at a press conference Wednesday.
The ACB has found that these projects were initially sanctioned to complete by June 2016 but not even a single work was completed in the time frame, leading to cost escalation, Delhi ACB chief Madhur Verma said in a statement Wednesday.
He further said that the Chief Technical Examiner of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had submitted a report on the projects to the then Delhi government in February 2020 flagging irregularities and and violations of several clauses of the work manuals of the Central Public Works Department.
However, the report was suppressed allegedly by the government. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal was the Delhi chief minister at the time.
Verma further said that the Semi-Permanent Structure (SPS) classrooms with a life span of 30 years were built at a cost equivalent to the cost of construction of RCC classrooms with a life span of 75 years without any financial benefit of adopting the SPS classrooms.
“CVC report also observed that ultimately the actual cost of the constructed SPS was more or less equal to the cost of permanent structures. The actual cost per sq.ft. of Priority -I, as worked out in the CVC report is Rs 2292 per sq.ft. against the cost of pucca structure model schools @2044 – 2416 per sq.ft. Due to adoption of richer specification, the construction cost of SPS classrooms almost matched the cost of pucca classrooms and apparently no financial benefit of adoption of SPS construction was achieved (sic),” Verma said in the statement.
“During enquiry, it is observed that the tenders were floated and contracts were awarded for Rs 860.63 crore. Subsequently, contract values escalated by 17% to 90% due to richer specifications. The escalation amounted to Rs 326.25 crore, of which Rs 205.45 crore was attributable to richer specifications, comprising 23.87% of the award value. No fresh tenders were invited to reflect these changes, contrary to CVC guidelines.”
Work worth Rs 42.5 crore was executed without proper tenders, using existing contracts In five schools, the statement added.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Tony Rai)