Delhi BJP Alleges 'Scam' After 4 AAP Govt Nominees Removed From Discom Boards, Demands CBI Probe

Hours after the AAP nominees to private discom boards were removed on the direction of LG Saxena, the Delhi BJP levelled allegations of a scam by the AAP govt and demanded a CBI probe into the matter.

New Delhi: Hours after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominees to private discom boards were removed on the direction of Lt Governor VK Saxena, the Delhi BJP levelled allegations of a scam by the AAP government and demanded a CBI probe into the matter. Delhi BJP's working president Virendra Sachdeva said removing AAP leader Jasmine Shah and its MP ND Gupta's son Naveen Gupta from power discoms is not enough, as reported by the news agency PTI.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party has been continuously saying there is a nexus between the Delhi government and private companies who are partners in power discoms and now it is getting proved," PTI quoted Sachdeva as saying.

Sachdeva alleged a "scam" in this matter and claimed that the AAP received "kickback", by appointing party leaders as nominees to boards of discoms instead of senior officers as has been the practice.

"We demand that a CBI inquiry be ordered as to how much profit power discoms minted with their connivance with AAP government," Sachdeva said, as quoted by PTI.

Following the directions given by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, Shah, and three other AAP government-appointed nominees to the boards of three power discoms in the national capital were removed from their posts by an order of the Power department on Friday. Saxena had cited in his noting that the rate of late payment surcharge was reduced to the right percent from 12 percent that caused a loss of over Rs 8,600 crore to the public exchequer of Delhi.

Shah dismissed charges that the government nominees benefitted the private discoms, PTI reported. "The allegation of causing financial loss made by the LG against me is laughable, complete nonsense, slanderous, and without a shred of evidence," Shah said in a statement.

The lieutenant governor is "abusing his high constitutional office," Shah alleged. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia termed the LG's action "illegal and unconstitutional" and rejected allegations of a "scam". 

The LG does not have the power to issue such orders, AAP claimed. No reaction was available from the discoms over the matter.

The Delhi government owns a 49 per cent stake in the discoms. Senior officers used to serve on the boards of the discoms earlier, but the Kejriwal government started nominating politically affiliated persons to them, PTI reported. 

(With PTI inputs)