The Hindu : Khurana has no right to talk on corruption: Maken

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 09, 2003

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Khurana has no right to talk on corruption: Maken

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MAY 8. Accusing the Delhi BJP chief, Madan Lal Khurana, of making "false, baseless and fabricated'' allegations, the Delhi Power Minister, Ajay Maken, today questioned Mr. Khurana's right to talk about corruption "when he himself had to resign as Chief Minister of Delhi on charges of corruption in the infamous Jain hawala case''.

Addressing a Press conference here, the Minister said ironically the case in which Mr. Khurana had to put in his papers was also related to Power Department where the former Chief Minister had gone out of the way throwing all norms to the winds and obliged the Jain Brothers in giving a power connection to their farmhouse. "Even Mr. Khurana's party did not deem it fit to reinstate him after the court gave relief as they were also convinced about the corrupt act of the BJP leader. One who is neck-deep in corruption has no moral authority to talk about it,'' Mr. Maken added.

Mr. Maken said it had become a habit with Mr. Khurana to make baseless charges every second day and then not pursue the matter to its logical conclusion for fear that his act might be exposed. "It is unfortunate that such a senior leader has stooped to such a level for the sake of securing petty political points and was an indicator of the fact how frustrated Mr. Khurana was. Such allegations no longer cut ice with the people who have seen through the game of Mr. Khurana and BJP and are waiting for the Assembly elections to teach them a lesson. What is most punishing for Mr. Khurana is that he has to fight to the Congress as well as those with in his party and Central Government,'' he remarked.

Regarding the allegations by Mr. Khurana that 1,500 files pertaining to the bulk consumers involving Rs. 700 crores were missing, Mr. Maken said it would be better for Mr. Khurana to cross check his own sources to save him any embarrassment in future. Categorically asserting that no files were lost or missing, Mr. Maken displayed hundreds of files of these very consumers at the press meet. He said that these files are available with both the private power companies and the holding company (Delhi Government) and they could be seen or inspected at any point of time. He said the photocopies of all ledgers pertaining to bulk supply consumers were available with the Government and their originals with the distribution companies.

The two companies -- BSES and NDPL -- had certified that all the records of 1039 bulk consumers are with them and anybody could inspect them. He said around 136 cases of bulk consumers were pending in the High Court and 405 in lower courts or Lok Adalats and the amount involved was around Rs. 56 crores. However, the rest of the amount was owned by government bodies to the Government and the private power companies. He explained that the outstanding dues from the bulk consumers were minimal. The collection efficiency in respect of bulk supply consumers was the greatest and stood at 95 per cent.

He explained that in the two and half years preceding the unbundling of Delhi Vidyut Board the total outstanding from the private bulk supply consumers amounted to Rs. 56.18 crores and on the out standings from the government organisations, the distribution companies will not be given any collection charges.

The total collection efficiency during 2000-01 was around 95 per cent, during 2001-02 it stood at 98.71 per cent and during 2002- 03 it touched around 100 per cent.

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