: A day after the “sofa-parda” scam returned to haunt the chief of its anti-graft unit, a former Delhi government official was accused of perpetrating a “blanket-tea scam” on Friday.
The Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch has received a complaint against former Delhi Dialogue Commission member-secretary Ashish Joshi, alleging misuse of funds allocated to the Delhi Urban Improvement Shelter Board from the Centre for Holistic Development, an NGO that works for homeless people.
“As much as Rs.12 crore, which was allocated to DUSIB by the Lieutenant-Governor for schemes aimed at making the lives of the homeless in Delhi better, was misused during the last financial year,” CHD’s Sunil Kumar Aledia said in his complaint.
According to the complaint, an estimated 20,000 blankets, sheets and other provisions were procured at double the price from the market while tea, which was supposed to be provided free of cost to those living in shelters for the homeless, was procured at Rs. 9 per cup, which exceeded the sanctioned cost of Rs. 4 per cup.
Mr. Aledia’s complaint also charged Mr. Joshi, who was a member of DUSIB at the time, with a “large-scale scam” in the utilisation of funds meant for de-addiction centres under the government and “unwarranted expulsion” of inmates from night shelters.
“We have received the complaint and are examining it before registering a case,” said a senior ACB official.
Mr. Joshi, an IAS official and a former member-secretary of the DDC, had accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar of corrupt practices related to the Information Technology (IT) sector in a complaint to Joint Commissioner of Police (Anti-Corruption Branch) Mukesh Kumar Meena on June 16. He had alleged that his knowledge of Mr. Kumar’s corruption triggered his abrupt repatriation by the Delhi government based on allegations of “misconduct and misbehaviour” on May 9.
According to the complaint, an estimated 20,000 blankets, were procured at double the market price; while tea, which was to be given to the homeless was procured at Rs. 9 per cup against the sanctioned cost of Rs. 4
