Seeking to be the face of Congress in the poll cauldron of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Sheila Dikshit might be in for some political salvos, thanks to the alleged bungling in Delhi Jal Board (DJB), of which she was the chairman for 15 years while being the chief minister of Delhi. The CBI, probing various aspects of the irregularities, has filed seven chargesheets in five cases pertaining to the alleged irregularities in the supply of equipment to DJB’s sewage treatment plants in the national capital during 2009-12. Although, the CBI has not named any of the then top functionaries of the DJB’s board, including Ms. Dikshit, in its chargesheet, the issue could heat up the political temperature in poll-bound UP.
According to sources, the chargesheets conclude that massive irregularities took place in the supply of equipment worth several crores to sewage treatment plants in the national capital during her tenure. These contracts were awarded when Diskhit was the chairperson of the DJB. “The agency in its probe reports has named eight former executive engineers and six former junior engineers of the DJB as accused who allegedly entered in criminal conspiracy with the owner of Delhi-based Metro Projects and Sales Services (MPSS) owner Raman Gupta, who forged letters of the regional manager of Esenpro (Mumbai) declaring his company to be authorised supplier of Esenpro equipment in Delhi. During investigation, the agency sleuths also recovered over 100 such letters with varying signatures,” sources said. Based on these letters, Gupta allegedly supplied equipment carrying Esen-pro trademark, purportedly spurious, worth several crore to five sub-divisions of the board, namely, Kon-dli, Keshopur Coronation Park, Maharani Bagh and Wazirabad, sources said adding that this has been mentioned in the probe reports. Those executive engineers who have been named in the chargesheets include: Banwari Lal Bharti, Islam Khan, J. P. Garg, S. C. Vasishtha, Seeshram Singh, G. P. Singh, R. K. Bhalla and J. K. Arora and six junior engineers.
