Date:06/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/06/stories/2009010656430400.htm

New Delhi

BJP for CBI probe into DDA scam

Staff Reporter

“The draw was conducted under pressure from the Delhi Government”

‘Return earnest money with interest’
Seeks White Paper on Blueline buses

NEW DELHI: Speakers at a meeting of the Delhi BJP Legislature Party convened by its leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra on Monday criticised the Congress governments at the Centre and in Delhi for the alleged scam in allotment of Delhi Development Authority flats, water crisis in the Capital and the manner in which the ‘killer’ Blueline buses continue to operate on the roads.

In a unanimous resolution, the party criticised the alleged scam in the allotment of flats by the DDA in connivance with property dealers and demanded a CBI probe into the matter. Delhiites have not forgotten the notorious Ashok Malhotra scam that was committed in allotment of plots to residents of jhuggi-jhompri clusters and the cooperative society scam, the Legislature Party said, adding that the DDA scam had deprived a number of genuine allottees of the flats.

The BJP MLAs charged that without a thorough scrutiny of the forms the draw was conducted under pressure from the Delhi Government. The Legislature Party demanded that the earnest money should be refunded to the unsuccessful applicants with interest and this scam should be referred for further probe to the CBI.

Prof. Malhotra also raised the issue of water and said a historic agreement was signed in 1994 by Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He said before reviewing this agreement the Delhi Government should ask for more water on the basis of the present population of Delhi. Also, he said, the work on the Munak Canal should be completed at the earliest.

The BJP leader raised the issue of Blueline buses wreaking havoc on the roads and charged that instead of taking the issue seriously, the Delhi Government was only playing politics on it. The Congress leaders are patronising the Bluelines and are responsible for the accidents these buses get involved in, he said. Instead of playing politics on the issue, he said, the Delhi Government should issue a White Paper on the plan to phase out these killer buses from the roads.