New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor Basic of India is conducting a “particular audit” into the alleged irregularities within the 2020 renovation of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, the lieutenant governor’s (L-G) secretariat stated in an announcement Tuesday.
In keeping with the assertion, the Union Ministry of House Affairs really helpful the audit on the idea of a suggestion letter from the L-G’s secretariat detailing the alleged irregularities.
The event comes a month after Delhi’s vigilance division flagged a number of “irregularities” within the renovation undertaken in 2020. In its report on 12 Could, the division claimed it had discovered, amongst different issues, designer equipment and fittings value Rs 48 lakh, creative and decorative work amounting to Rs 5 crore, marble work value Rs 2.4 crore, a sauna bathtub and jacuzzi value Rs 20 lakh, and a elaborate modular kitchen value over Rs 1 crore.
The report additionally flagged environmental violations, together with the felling of timber, and claimed that a number of guidelines have been flouted throughout the renovation.
The CAG audit has drawn a pointy response from the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP), which condemned the transfer and claimed it got here regardless of a CAG inquiry final yr discovering nothing.
“Conducting a CAG inquiry is a prerogative of an elected authorities, and by interfering within the affairs of the Delhi authorities, the central authorities is violating constitutional ideas,” the AAP assertion learn, whereas calling the transfer a systemic concentrating on of opposition leaders.
Alternatively, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) welcomed the transfer, with Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva claiming that the inquiry would “quickly reveal underneath whose stress the PWD officers violated legal guidelines”.
The event is the newest flashpoint between the L-G and the AAP authorities, who’ve been at loggerheads for months now.
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‘Concocted’
The Delhi CM’s official residence is positioned at 6 Flagstaff Highway, Civil Traces. In its report back to Lieutenant Governor V.Okay.Saxena, the vigilance division pegged the overall value of renovating the chief minister’s official residence at Rs 33.49 crore and the camp workplace at Rs 19.22 crore.
The most recent growth comes per week after the vigilance division issued present trigger notices to seven officers from the Public Works Division — which carried out the renovation — over the alleged violations.
“The L-G, in his letter, underlined that these violations/extravagant expenditure came about, because the report factors out, inter alia, on the behest of the ‘Hon’ble CM Madam’ throughout the peak of COVID-19 pandemic when the nation in addition to Delhi have been reeling underneath acute misery,” in keeping with an official on the L-G’s secretariat.
The letter was purportedly referring to Kejriwal’s spouse Sunita.
In its assertion, AAP known as the audit a “fastidiously orchestrated drama”.
“The concocted allegations, starting from the so-called liquor scandal to alleged irregularities within the reconstruction of the CM’s residence, are a part of a fastidiously orchestrated drama designed to divert public consideration from the huge scams involving Adani, which proceed unabated underneath the protecting umbrella of Prime Minister Modi,” the assertion stated.
“Liquor rip-off” refers to allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s excise coverage. AAP chief Manish Sisodia is amongst a number of individuals arrested in reference to that case.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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