Former AAP ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain are facing fresh trouble in the alleged Rs 2,000-crore classroom construction scam. The anti-corruption branch (ACB) of Delhi Police has registered a corruption case against the two leaders and started a comprehensive probe to ascertain the role of other alleged culprits.
The role of unknown government officials and contractors is also being investigated, said ACB chief Madhur Verma.
Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sisodia held the Education portfolio in the Arvind Kejriwal government, while Mr Jain was the minister in charge of PWD (Public Works Department), the government agency that carries out such constructions.
The ACB has found that over 12,000 classroom and school buildings were constructed at an exorbitant cost during the previous AAP regime, which led to alleged irregularities worth Rs 2,000 crore.
The contracts were awarded to 34 contractors, and most of them were found to be associated with the AAP. The construction was not completed within the stipulated timeframe, which led to a huge increase in cost, the ACB said.
The classrooms were built in the form of a Semi-Permanent Structure (SPS) that would last for 30 years. However, the cost turned out to be equal to that of pucca classrooms that have a life of 75 years, the anti-corruption probe has revealed.
The cost went up further since consultants and architects were hired without following the due process, the ACB said.
The probe began after some BJP leaders lodged complaints alleging that the cost for building classrooms had gone up nearly five times.
A report by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) also exposed several irregularities in the classroom project, but it was suppressed for almost three years, the ACB added.
The report said that the cost of SPS construction reached Rs 2,292 per sq ft, almost equal to the cost of building concrete school buildings at Rs 2044-2416 per sq ft. The project's cost was increased by Rs 326 crore without bringing new tenders, it added.
