NEW DELHI: Citing Anaj Mandi fire incident, which left 43 people dead, the Congress on Monday sought resignation of Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain alleging poor electrical infrastructure in the area.
Speaking at a press conference, Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra also demanded resignations of local MLA and Delhi minister Imran Hussain and north Delhi mayor Avtar Singh for the tragedy.
The Congress said that murder charge should be invoked against Jain and private power companies (DISCOMs) as they were responsible for the terrible fire on Sunday.
“In his year alone, 94 people have died across Delhi in fire accidents. Due to the collusion between Arvind Kejriwal government’s Power Minister and the DISCOMs, `825 crore, which the power companies had promised to spend to change the cables and improve the infrastructure, have not been spent,” said Chopra.
Targeting DISCOMs, he said, "Had the discoms strengthened the infrastructure and laid 650 km of underground cables, then the tragedy in the Filmistan area would not have happened,” he said.
Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma alleged that private power companies had collected thousands of rupees as fines from this area for misuse of power by increasing the load capacity.
“Had they spent even one per cent of that amount on strengthening the cable system in these areas, this mishap would not have happened. This was not only a big scandal, but a major corruption which should be probed,” he said.