NEW DELHI: The BJP on Tuesday said that the arrest of three persons in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) scam is not enough and an FIR should also be lodged against CM Arvind Kejriwal because he is the chairman of DJB and would have been aware of the scam.
Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that in the year 2015, the DJB authorised the Corporation Bank to collect the bills, but the bank assigned it to another company and the second company then gave it to a third company. Instead of depositing the cash and cheques received from the consumers with the Jal Board, the company deposited them in fake accounts. This scam was going on since 2015. There was a nexus between the DJB officials, fund collector agents appointed by the board and bank officials who embezzled hundreds of crores of rupees.
The LoP said that it is surprising that at the end of 2018 this scam came to the fore of some senior DJB officials, then during the probe, it was found that till now a scam of Rs 20 crore has been done. When this scam came to light, those officials informed the CM and DJB Chairman Arvind Kejriwal as well, but instead of taking any action, he not only allowed the bank to continue with the contract but also increased its per bill commission by one rupee. Earlier they were given Rs five per bill as commission, which was increased to Rs 6 per bill.
Bidhuri said that the CM will have to explain “Why the bank’s contract was not terminated after the scam came to light in 2018. How did the bank’s contract continue till 2020? Why was his commission increased instead of taking any action? If he was honest and had no greed, then why was the whole matter not immediately reported to the police?”