New Delhi, May 08: In a terse rejoinder to allegations of corruption by Delhi BJP, the city government today charged that the opposition party was "lying" and "misrepresenting facts" to gain political mileage ahead of the assembly polls due later this year. Power Minister Ajay Maken also lashed out at BJP unit president Madan Lal Khurana for levelling "serious" allegations yesterday against the government, saying he had "no moral right" to do so since "he was removed from chief ministership (in 1996) because of corruption charges."
Maken was reacting to Khurana's allegations of multi-hundred crore rupee power scam, particularly claiming that about 1500 files showing electricity dues of Rs 700 crore had gone missing with the "connivance" of Delhi government. "He (Khurana) is spreading lies. He is misrepresenting facts because the BJP does not have any issue to raise against the government," the minister said.
Asserting that no files were missing and that these had been handed over to private companies at the time of power privatisation last year, he said an amount of Rs 890 crore and not Rs 700 is due on account of power consumption from various government bodies and this relates to 1639 cases and not 1500. Bulk private consumers owe only Rs 56.18 crore, he said.
On Khurana's allegations of corruption in appointment of private contractors to collect electricity dues, Maken said even senior BJP leader and Union minister Sahib Singh Verma had recommended a set of names for such appointments. Bureau Report