NEW DELHI: Intensifying its attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday alleged that the budget for construction of nursery classrooms was increased by Rs 100 crore on “verbal” orders.
The fresh allegation prompted Deputy CM Manish Sisodia to serve a defamation notice on BJP leaders, including state president Manoj Tiwari.
Referring to the purported minutes of the Delhi government’s finance committee’s meeting of March 2018, Tiwari, at a press conference, said that the government constructed 366 nursery classrooms, with the estimated cost of each classroom being Rs 28.70 lakh.
“The minutes show that an estimate of Rs 221.44 crore was revised to Rs 326.36 crore, and the Public Works Department (PWD) was verbally authorised to complete the work pending formal approval,” he said.
On Tuesday, the leaders of Delhi BJP had alleged a “scam” of Rs 2,000 crore in construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools.
BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said that “verbal authorisation” for an amount to the tune of Rs 100 crore was not permitted as per CPW manual and it was a clear cut case of “corruption”.
Tiwari also claimed that in the meeting, the principal secretary (finance) had “objected” that the nursery classrooms constructed by the PWD were semi-permanent structures instead of permanent rooms.
“According to the documents, the classrooms of the government include the cost of a smart room, smart class projector, table-chair, but one cannot find these things in the classrooms,” the Delhi BJP chief said.