'Extortion model': BJP targets AAP, alleges school scam in Delhi government schools

The BJP on Monday alleged a scam in the Delhi education department, saying the city government increased the budget for the construction of classrooms in its existing schools, ignoring the Central Public Works Department’s guidelines.

Citing a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report sent to the Delhi government's vigilance department in 2020, the saffron party said the city government hiked the construction cost by Rs 326 crore, 53 percent more than the original tender amount, without floating a new tender.

Alleging that the Delhi government counted toilets as classrooms to inflate figures related to school infrastructure, it said the AAP’s education model was actually an “extortion model”.

While addressing the media, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia hit out at AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and said, "You, your party and your corrupt ministers will be punished under the law of the land... you will not be spared"

Furthermore, the saffron party leader added "The AAP government promised to construct 500 new schools in Delhi. That never happened. They then said they will build more classrooms in the existing schools. The number of rooms was increased from 2,400 to 7,180. The construction cost was increased by up to 90 per cent," Citing the CVC report, Bhatia said only 4,027 additional classrooms were constructed against the assessed requirement of 6,133 classrooms.

Bhatia said according to the CVC report, only two rainwater harvesting systems were found installed against the public works department’s claim of 29.

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The sanctioned amount for these projects was Rs 989.26 crore. The award value of all the tenders was Rs 860.63 crore. However, the actual expenditure went up to Rs 1,315.57 crore, Bhatia said.

"Why did you not float a new tender? Was it to benefit your friends?" he said.

Meanwhile, AAP MLA Atishi, rubbished all the allegations and slammed Bhatia for targeting Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is leaving no stone unturned to topple the AAP government.

With inputs from agency