NEW DELHI: A verbal spat broke out between Bharatiya Janata (BJP) and ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday over alleged corruption in classrooms construction.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari accused deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia of overpaying for their construction and awarding work to the relatives of AAP leaders.
Responding to the allegation, the education minister asked Tiwari to get him arrested if he had committed a scam or else he should tender an apology to the people of Delhi.
Speaking at a press conference at state unit’s headquarters, Tiwari said that the Arvind Kejriwal government had committed a “bungling of Rs 2,000 crore” in the name of construction of school classrooms.
Seeking resignation of Sisodia, Tiwari said that he should resign and face investigation. “The cost of construction of a classroom is about Rs 3-5 lakh but Kejriwal government is paying Rs 25 lakh for a room. Stone slabs and T-iron have been used in the construction, which is the cheapest material for construction.
There are 12,748 rooms under construction on which Kejriwal Government is spending Rs 2,892 crore whereas the cost of construction of these rooms should be Rs 892 crore as per the present market cost,” said Tiwari.
Sisodia also called a press conference in the evening in which he challenged BJP to show one public school run by the BJP governments across the nation “that can match up to the potential” of Delhi government schools. “I challenge to arrest me by evening or apologise to the people of Delhi about your lies. If I am involved in R2,000 crore scam then you have all the agencies are under your control, Central government is yours get me arrested,” said Sisodia.
The education minister denied the numbers presented by Tiwari, saying “we have the best of the classrooms, teachers go abroad on training, Delhi has smart classes and there is no way to figure out such a simplistic amount per room”.
Tiwari, however, said the nexus of corruption between Kejriwal and Sisodia has been exposed. “This is not my duty to attest culprits. The agencies having responsibilities will conduct investigation. We will lodge a complaint before Lokpal and the police on Tuesday to demand a thorough investigation into the matter.” Tiwari said.
In a series of tweets, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “For the first time children of the poor, children of the auto drivers, maids of labourers are becoming engineer, doctors and lawyers. CBI of BJP investigated all our files, they found nothing. If there is a scam then arrest us why are you stopping medium of good education to the poor?”
Another attack on AAP
Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta on Monday asked Manish Sisodia to come out with a white paper on his 24-point to construct classrooms in Delhi government schools. Gupta said that Sisodia’s challenge to arrest him is well known as ‘nautanki’ (theatrics). “In place of asking to be arrested, he must reply to the questions. The reply to the questions will expose the unprecedented scam in connivance with the PWD Department for last four and a half years,” the BJP leader said.