In the alleged Rs 2,000 crore school construction scam, the ACB has summoned AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain. Both ministers face questions over corruption in building classrooms for Delhi government schools.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has summoned Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain regarding an alleged Rs 2,000 crore corruption scandal linked to the construction of classrooms in government schools.
Minister Satyendar Jain is scheduled to appear at the ACB office on June 6, while Manish Sisodia is required to attend court on June 9.
This action follows a complaint from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Harish Khurana, BJP MLA Kapil Mishra, and Neelkanth Bakshi from the BJP’s Media Relations Department, who accused the AAP ministers of inflating the costs for building semi-permanent classrooms, according to a statement by Deputy Commissioner of Police Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) Shweta Singh Chauhan.
Chauhan stated,
“We received a complaint against Manish Sisodia, former Deputy CM, and Satyendar Jain, former PWD Minister… the scam is of over Rs 2,000 crore. The classrooms were semi-permanent structures, and the cost estimate was around Rs 24,00,000 per classroom, which was more than the prevalent market rate back then.”
She further noted,
“There was a considerable cost escalation by the time projects were completed. The allegations are that the prevalent market rate by then was Rs five lakhs to complete a classroom structure.”
The complaint claims there were irregularities in the construction of roughly 12,748 classrooms, with a reported expenditure of Rs 2,892 crore.
The cost per classroom, as specified in the awarded tenders, was approximately Rs 24.86 lakh, despite similar structures in Delhi being built for around Rs five lakh, according to the allegations.
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Additionally, it is claimed that the project was assigned to 34 contractors, many of whom were allegedly connected to the AAP.
ACB chief Madhur Verma noted that during their investigation, it was determined that the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) had decided in meetings during the financial year 2015-16 that the project should be completed by June 2016 within the approved budget, with no allowance for future cost increases.