The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi Government has filed an FIR against Delhi‘s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and ex-PWD minister Satyendar Jain for alleged financial irregularities worth Rs 2,000 crore in a school infrastructure project. The FIR was registered after the approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. This comes after the Central Vigilance Commission had indicated serious violations in a 2020 report.
The action has been confirmed by the ACB Chief Madhur Verma. He stated, ”The Chief Technical Examiner’s report of the CVC pointed out several anomalies in the project and the report was kept under the carpet for about three years.”
What is Rs 2,000cr classroom scam?
The irregularities are over the construction of around 12,700 classrooms during the government of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Investigating officials allege that consultants and architects were recruited without following the standard procurement. This was the reason behind the major cost inflation. As per the Indian Express report, not a single classroom was completed within the original time limit, despite clear orders from the finance committee to avert a cost hike.
The CVC report, which was published in February 2020, also blamed project officials for defying norms and financial regulations of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). The report stated that the final cost of some classrooms was comparable to the permanent structure rates.
The ACB has acted on a complaint filed by BJP‘s Manoj Tiwari in 2019. He stated that the cost per classroom had blown out to 28 lakhs against a standard construction cost of Rs 5 lakh. Tiwari stated that, ”The work was given to 34 contractors, most of them were closely related to AAP.”
As per the report, 19 out of 25 school zones under investigation were fast-tracked, whereas the rest related to defence, construction materials, and farm produce are under a second-phase probe.