NEW DELHI: As Delhi government hurriedly abandoned its controversial liquor policy to switch back to the old one, BJP took potshots at it, attributing the sudden reversal to CBI probe ordered against deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.
“It is an admission of violations, corruption and loss to exchequer as pointed out. Sisodia to join Satyendra in jail? said BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya. “If new excise policy of Kejriwal isn’t a mega scam, then why is his government rushing to revert to the old policy after CBI inquiry was ordered?” he questioned.
The jibe came amid a strong suspicion in the ruling party circles that by suddenly withdrawing its much-publicised liquor policy AAP government could be trying to distract attention from alleged corruption in the award of liquor contracts and, simultaneously, engineer chaos outside liquor shops which it would pin on the Centre.
Sisodiha, who rolled out the excise policy and termed it as a reform, blaming BJP for the policy reversal and alleging that the saffron outfit was trying to help a liquor cartel from outside Delhi were seen as reinforcing BJP’s apprehension.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said that the AAP government rolled back the new excise policy after “Delhi chief ninister Arvind Kejriwal feared that his deputy Manish Sisodia would go to jail”.
“The Delhi LG recommended for probe into the new excise policy, it created a havoc and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal started seeing Manish Sisodia going into the jail,” he said.
The AAP government on Friday rolled back the policy within four hours of the Delhi Lokayukta’s decision to initiate a probe into the construction additional classrooms, Tiwari claimed. “We welcome the decision... This is the victory of Delhi’s people. But we are not going to sit ideally till the corruption of Rs 600 to 700 crore in the policy is unearthed,” he said.
BJP MP Pravesh Verma attacked Sisodia also for alleged corruption in the construction of classrooms in government schools in Delhi. “This (AAP) government has constructed a classroom at the cost of around Rs 28 lakh. We will show that it can be constructed in Rs 5 lakh,” he said a day after Lokayukta took cognizance of allegations of corruption in the construction of classrooms.
