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A total of ₹52.71 crore was spent on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence complex — 6, Flagstaff Road, Civil Lines — by the Public Works Department (PWD), as per a Directorate of Vigilance (DoV) report commissioned by Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena earlier this month.
Giving a break-up of the expenditure, the report states ₹33.49 crore was spent on the CM house and ₹19.22 crore on building a camp office. In response, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the report has no mention of any crime being committed.
The DoV was asked to investigate the renovation project by the L-G after he took note of media reports about the work on the CM house on April 27. He asked the department to submit a report within 15 days.
The report was prepared and signed by Special Secretary (Vigilance) Y.V.V.J. Rajasekhar on May 12, a day after he was divested of all duties by Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj following a Supreme Court verdict on the services issue on May 11.
The BJP has alleged that ₹45 crore was spent in renovating the CM house.
The report also states that “the PWD itself has not sanctioned any plan either for alteration or addition or construction of a new building or for any such kind of re-development. The building was erected without any sanctioned plans. Despite the same, the payments were made to the consultant”.
It also raises a question on the ownership of the property, adding that the PWD did not ascertain it before taking up construction work.
‘Ownership in doubt’
“An ownership status report was submitted by Revenue Department officials of Civil Lines (Central District) to the Vigilance Department, according to which the entire area of the CM’s residence falls under ‘khasra’ (unit) no. 373 to 380,” the report states.
Of the total units, three are owned by a private party, while one is listed in the name of the State Bank of India, the report adds.
The Vigilance Department report also finds that various changes in the sketches prepared by the consultants were made on the directions of “Hon’ble CM Madam”, which raised the cost of the project by nearly ₹1.64 crore.
Reacting to the report, AAP said, “There is nothing in the report to say any crime was committed. This is the first time an official CM residence complex was created in Delhi comprising the CM residence, office secretariat, auditorium, staff quarters etc.”
‘PM scared of Kejriwal’
“It is unfortunate that the BJP, after failing in all its attempts to malign the image of the CM over the past nine years, is now targeting CM’s residence,” the party statement added.
“The BJP should focus its energies on investigating the Adani scam. The CM is extremely popular and his popularity is spreading fast across the country. Modiji is scared of the increasing popularity of the Delhi CM. That’s why Modiji has unleashed all [probe] agencies against Kejriwalji. Modiji has not been able to find irregularity of a single penny so far,” the statement read.
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