Cong slams AAP over funds report
The Congress on Thursday demanded the resignation of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the wake of the Shunglu committee report that has pointed out “serious irregularities and siphoning off public funds for political gains” by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after coming to power in 2015.
The party also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the allegations of corruption against the AAP government and declared that it will observe Friday as “Kala Diwas (Black Day) in all the 272 wards going to polls on April 23.
“We are not demanding dismissal of the AAP government but asking Kejriwal to step down on his own on moral grounds for misusing public resources and his official position against the interest of the people,” Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken told a news conference.
The Congress party also urged President Pranab Mukherjee to take note of the findings of the 269-page Shunglu Committee report.
The three-member committee, comprising former comptroller and auditor general VK Shunglu, former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami and former chief vigilance commissioner Pradeep Kumar, was formed on August 30 2016 by then lieutenant governor (L-G) Najeeb Jung, to look into the 400 files pertaining to various decisions taken by the Kejriwal government.
Armed with the committee report, Maken said the AAP government had unilaterally decided that it would give land to political parties in a bid to validate the allotment of official accommodation to AAP ministers, including Satyender Jain. However, the Delhi government was informed it does not have the land allotment power.
He alleged that family members of AAP leaders got high positions in the government while ministers and functionaries of Kejriwal’s party travelled abroad on the Delhi’s government’s expense.
The Shunglu panel, formed by Jung soon after the Delhi high court on August 4 2017 stamped the L-G as the city’s administrator, submitted its report on November 27, 2017. However, it surfaced on Wednesday even as the Congress announced to make it public on Thursday. The party accessed a copy through RTI.