Denying the Congress’ allegation of corruption and compromise of national security, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday said the Chinese company that would be providing cameras for the Delhi government’s CCTV project had done so for the Central government, including the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The contract for 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras had been given to Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a public sector undertaking, which would be getting the cameras from a Chinese company, Hikvision.
Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said the AAP government had “compromised national security” and taken “kickbacks” for the project.
Replying to Mr. Maken’s allegation, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “BEL is Modi’s company...Where does it say that there is a ban on buying from Chinese firms?”
He added that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the MoD, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Special Protection Group had all procured cameras from the same company. “Have they compromised on national security,” asked Mr. Bharadwaj, addressing a press conference at the party office.
He added that Hikvision had been a vendor of BEL in 2017, when the first tender was floated, and in 2018, for the second time.
Citing the minutes of the meeting of the PWD that the Congress said showed Hikvision representatives were present, Mr. Bharadwaj said a representative of another manufacturer, CP Plus, was also present, as was the norm for such a meeting.
At a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat later, Development and Labour Minister Gopal Rai, who is also AAP Delhi convener, said there was an attempt to stall the CCTV project.
“The CCTV cameras project has been ongoing for some time, but now when it is in the final stage, Ajay Maken says there is a scam,” said Mr. Rai, terming Mr. Maken’s allegation “lies”.
