Water bill scam case: If LG says Delhi govt can conduct probe, it will do so, says AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj

New Delhi: Following LG VK Saxena's statement that the AAP government is not taking action on the water bill scam case, Delhi Jal Board Vice Chairperson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Tuesday that major official decisions are taken through the LG and if he says on record that Delhi govt can conduct a probe, then the state government will do so.

Bharadwaj launched an attack on LG after the arrest of Jal Board's Joint Director for Revenue in water bill scam case by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The ACB arrested DJB Joint Commissioner Naresh Singh on Monday hours after questioning him on allegations of siphoning a whopping Rs 20 crores in an alleged water bill scam. ACB in its statement on allegations against Singh said that he was receiving bribes worth lakhs from the bitevtors of Aurrum and Fresh Pay.

The entire matter of alleged scam in the Delhi Jal Board is associated with a contract dating back to the tenure of former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit. The work to collect the bills of the Delhi Jal Board was initially given to Corporation Bank, a central government bank, which is now Union Bank of India. They outsourced to some other company and that company outsourced it to some other. The bills paid by the people were given by these companies to the Corporation Bank and the Bank later gave it to the Delhi Jal Board.

However, it later came to notice that the outsourcing company collected Rs 20 crores but didn't transfer it to the bank and eventually it couldn't reach the Jal Board.
The outsourcing company fled, but a few persons were arrested, Bharadwaj further added that if there is the involvement of any DJB officials, then a probe must be launched against them.

Bharadwaj said, "LG is the one who appoints every official in the government he should say on record that the Delhi government can conduct an investigation, we are ready to investigate hundreds of cases. The LG has objection even on the minor investigations being done by the committees of the Delhi Vidhansabha."

"I have a question for the LG Sir. If he wants, he should give the rights of investigation to the Delhi government. The Delhi Government is the only one that had all the powers once to conduct investigation and enquiries, however, all of it has been snatched away by the Central Government and the Lt. Governor," he added further. (ANI)