Delhi Lieutenant Governor orders chief secretary to probe AAP government's subsidies to BSES

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has asked the Chief Secretary of the union territory to probe the alleged "irregularities and discrepancies" in the power subsidy given by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to the BSES power company. He has demanded a report on this within seven days. 

Earlier this year, Saxena had asked for a similar report on the Delhi excise policy. He later found alleged discrepancies and ordered a CBI probe into the matter. Manish Sisodia is one of the over dozen accused in the case. 

The Delhi government had withdrawn the policy after Saxena ordered the probe. 

According to reports, Saxena took the action after he received a complaint alleging impropriety and discrepancies. 

The complainants-- by a collective of eminent lawyers, jurists, and law professionals-- have alleged that earlier Senior Government officers of the Delhi Government were nominated as Directors on the Board of Directors of BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL) to represent the Delhi Government (as it owns 49 percent shares of BYPL and BRPL) so that the interests of the Delhi Government are protected. 

The complainants further alleged that the AAP appointed active political functionaries of its party, viz. Jasmine Shah, and Naveen ND Gupta, as nominee Directors on the Board of Directors of BRPL and BYPL, so that this exercise of swindling public money in collusion with these two Anil Ambani-owned companies (BRPL and BYPL) could be carried out without any intervention of the government. 

The complainants have also alleged the AAP in a "classic case of corruption" by mentioning in their complaint that the Delhi government has got into a "cozy deal" with BRPL and BYPL instead of recovering its outstanding dues of Rs 21,250 Crore for default in payment for power purchased by the defaulting vendor DISCOMS (BRPL and BYPL) from State-owned Power Generation Companies, and debarring it from further business in Delhi. 

They said that the Delhi government also "unduly" allowed DISCOMS to charge Late Payment Surcharge (LPSC) at a rate of 18 percent from the people and paying the same at a rate of 12 percent only to the Delhi Government-owned Power Generation Companies, in the process providing a windfall gain of Rs 8,500 crore at the cost of the state exchequer.

This move can set up another confrontation between AAP and the Centre.

The AAP government hasn't reacted to the allegations yet. 

With inputs from ANI