BJP demands CBI probe into Delhi drain desilting 'scam', AAP blames officers

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday alleged a "scam of hundreds of crores of rupees" in drain desilting work in Delhi by the AAP-led government's agencies and demanded a CBI probe into it.

The BJP's Delhi unit president Virendra Sachdeva said, "Corruption and loot of the AAP-led Delhi government and the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) are responsible for the deaths of three civil services aspirants in a flooded basement library of a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar and other rain-related incidents in the city".

In response, AAP said the questions the BJP was asking were old and added that it was Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj who had pressed for a third-party audit of the desilting work.

The minister directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar in May to provide a list of drains that had been desilted for verification, AAP said in a statement.

Sachdeva said that in 2022-23, the Delhi government's irrigation and flood control and public works departments removed three lakh metric ton and two lakh metric ton silt from drains, respectively.

The MCD and the Delhi Jal Board removed two lakh metric ton and 40,000 metric ton silt, respectively, during that period.

"By this estimate, in 2024, these agencies should have lifted around 8-9 lakh metric ton silt from the drains. I want to ask Delhi ministers Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Mayor Shelly Oberoi if the drains were desilted this year and where the removed silt went," Sachdeva said.

He claimed that there was no record of trucks carrying silt removed from the drains reaching Singhola in Narela where it is dumped or the city's three landfill sites.

"There is a scam of hundreds of crores of rupees in the drain desilting exercise," he alleged and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into it.

The entire city is in a "mess" due to this "loot" of crores of rupees, he charged.

Strict action needs to be taken against officials concerned and the role of the AAP dispensation should also be looked at, the Delhi BJP president said.

Responding to the allegations, AAP said that despite a reminder from Bharadwaj on June 5, the chief secretary did not send the list of the desilted drains.

The ruling party alleged that Kumar, the chief secretary, was close to the BJP and made a number of excuses to avoid sharing the list.

"This also means that the chief secretary had an idea that desilting was not happening on the ground," it claimed.

AAP said that Bhardwaj, during a June meeting of all agencies responsible for desilting, had said most of the work was done only on paper and called for a third-party audit.

Delhi High Court had formed the Integrated Drain Management Cell, headed by the chief secretary, and categorically directed that these efforts should be verified through a third-party audit, it added.

"Since, the chief secretary is exposed and this matter is in the public domain, the BJP is trying to shift the blame on the government, " AAP alleged.

Kumar, in a note to Bharadwaj on Wednesday, informed that the irrigation and flood control department principal secretary had been directed to submit a factual note on the third-party audit.

All the agencies concerned with desilting of drains were also directed not to make payments to contractors till the audit, Kumar had said in the note.