New Delhi: As the Capital gears up for the Delhi Assembly elections, set to be announced any time now, the Aam Aadmi Party Leader of Opposition in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Surjeet Singh Pawar on Monday submitted a complaint to the CBI, alleging a Rs 100 crore corruption racket run by officials of the BJP-controlled North MCD.
Pawar visited the CBI headquarters here in the afternoon and left around 4 pm, where he spoke to a few reporters about the allegations against the North MCD officials.
He said that the municipality had unauthorisedly sanctioned the construction and operation of Unipoles for advertising in its jurisdiction, causing a loss of Rs 100 crore to the corporation.
In his complaint addressed to the Director, CBI, Pawar said that as per procedures for sanctioning the construction of Unipoles, the corporation chooses designated spots where it is authorised to allow for this type of construction.
But speaking to the Millennium Post, Pawar said the areas under North MCD's jurisdiction had three to four times the number of Unipoles than allowed for, which according to him were constructed by paying large sums of kickbacks to officials of the municipality.
The complaint goes on to allege that this is in complete contravention of the guidelines of the Unipole Advertising Policy of the North MCD and that it must be investigated. Pawar said he had taken several rounds in the corporation's jurisdiction and taken pictures to prove his allegations.
"I also spoke to North MCD officials, including the Additional Commissioner responsible for this matter, but they refused to take the matter seriously. As a result, I had to submit this complaint to the CBI," Pawar said.
Pawar's complaint also raises serious concerns of the alleged illegal Unipole advertisements being placed at locations that might interfere with road users and might pose serious risk of accidents.
The complaint added that some of these Unipole contracts were given to sister concerns of companies already blacklisted by the municipality earlier, through back channels.
Pawar said, "The BJP has been leading the North MCD for almost 15 years now and it must be clear that they do not care about the people." He added that it is shameful that North MCD is counted amongst the most corrupt agencies in the country.
However, North MCD Commissioner Varsha Joshi called the allegations "rather vague", adding: "No actionable specifics that I can make out, and anyway pertains to the earlier tender procedure which we are revising in any case."