CNG fitness scam: AAP demands L-G’s clarification on his role

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung immediately clarify whether he has made any attempt to hush up Rs 100 crore from the CNG fitness scam, in which chief secretary DM Spolia is also allegedly involved.

The L-G can no longer remain silent following news reports that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its preliminary investigation, has found that Jung had asked the Anti Corruption Branch of Delhi to close the probe involving top bureaucrats of the state government.

It is high time that Jung clarifies his role and until and unless he can prove to the contrary, he should resign immediately given the seriousness of the case and his role in protecting the graft tainted.

Given the role of the L-G in protecting the top officers and the involvement of the chief secretary himself in the scam, the Election Commission of India should immediately take note and decide whether free and fair elections would be possible in Delhi with such individuals at the helm of administration.

The continuing silence of the BJP’s central government and the L-G on the indictment of top city bureaucrats by the CBI in what is commonly known as the 2002 CNG fitness scam gives rise to reasonable apprehensions that people of Delhi are being cheated by an unaccountable administration and taxpayers money is being looted without any fear.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had directed Delhi’s Anti Corruption Wing (ACB) in January this year to provide all relevant documents to the CBI, when the investigating agency had registered a preliminary inquiry and sought all such documents from the ACB.

It is shocking that indicted bureaucrats are continuing in top administrative positions and the BJP’s central government, which is indirectly controlling Delhi, appears to be turning a blind eye towards the multi-crore scams committed during the Sheila Dikshit government’s tenure. The AAP pointed out that the Union Home Ministry and Delhi administration should break their silence on when the CBI has sent a report to the Union Home Ministry and Delhi government’s department of vigilance asking for departmental action and further inquiries against three top bureaucrats, including the present Chief Secretary Spolia.

“Is it not a fact that the former Sheila Dikshit government had tried to scuttle a probe into this scam by the Anti-Corruption Branch citing an order from the L-G that no inquiry was required?

“Is it not a fact that official documents were forged to conceal facts about this scam?” asked AAP.