Arvind Kejriwal sat on water scam report

Former AAP leader Kapil Mishra's allegations that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ignored the water tanker scam of the previous regime and sat on the report despite knowing the irregularities, are "absolutely correct," according to the Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB). The agency's chief MK Meena told DNA, "We know this fact and we are probing the matter and will question whosoever is involved be it the Chief Minister himself."

The committee set up to probe the scam that took place during the former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's regime clearly highlighted the irregularities. As per the report accessed by DNA, the total financial loss is Rs 360.55 crore. Interestingly, both Kejriwal and Dikshit have been named in the registered FIR and will be questioned eventually.

The report of the fact-finding panel on the alleged Rs 360.55 water tanker scam linking Dikshit was forwarded to the ACB by then Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung for further investigation.

According to the fact-finding committee report, the then member (administration) of the Delhi Jal Board has submitted "misleading comments" in his note regarding the constitution and type of consultancy company National Institute for Smart Government (NISG). The report said the DJB had stated that NISG was a government agency and concealed the fact that it was a private company as per the Companies Act 1956.

Sources said that this was not the first time that NISG had been engaged with any department of Delhi government. "The (hired) consultants NISG and DIMTS had been appointed in an arbitrary manner on nomination basis which is unjustified and in contravention to the guidelines of CVC and CAG which do not allow such appointment on nomination basis except in exceptional cases," the report said.

The report also indicates that the DJB suffered financial loss of Rs 36.59 crores due to the awarding of work to DIMTS on a nomination basis. The nomination of DIMTS eliminated the existing firm PCS Technologies which was earlier working with the DJB.

Elaborating on this, the report shows a further loss amounting to Rs 323.96 crores. This, it says was caused due to the awarding of work at much higher and "unjustified" rates, as compared to the rates quoted by another company SPML Infra Ltd. which were found to be much cheaper

Due to this, the report says, the government suffered a total financial loss of Rs 360.55 crores without considering the annual incremental charges. "Moreover, we must also take into account the comparative loss as compared to conventional hired tankers which works out to be Rs 87.08 per 300 KL tankers and Rs 119.61 per 9 KL tankers per km," the report stated.

The report, carried out by a committee of the Delhi Jal Board, was sent to the former LG Najeeb Jung. Persistent demands for a probe have been voiced by by either CBI or the Anti Corruption Branch by Delhi BJP leader Vijender Gupta as well as sacked AAP leader Kapil Mishra for some time now.

Meanwhile, ACB chief M K Meena said all aspects of the case, including whether the AAP government was sitting over the file relating to the case, will be probed.

DNA analysis
ACB has already questioned Sheila Dikshit and Kapil Mishra into the matter. The agency has not yet grilled Kejriwal, who has been also been named in the FIR.