CAG report doesn't indict Dikshit: Delhi govt

With the Opposition gunning for Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi government on Monday claimed that there was no indictment of the chief minister or any other political leader in the report on Commonwealth Games projects by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Noting that the government has gone through the report of the CAG, Delhi Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said it has neither indicted Dikshit nor any other political personality. The report has praised the city government on infrastructure development work, he claimed

"We have gone through the report. The chief minister or any minister or any public functionary has not been named. Nobody has been indicted. (There is) No mention of their names. Where is the indictment of the chief minister," he said.

"What is happening now is unnecessary politicisation of the CAG report. Some people are trying to milk political mileage. Nowhere in the report is there a mention of the words corruption or scam," Lovely told a press conference after a meeting of the Delhi Cabinet which discussed the audit report in detail.

Tearing into the Opposition's demand for Dikshit's resignation, Lovely said if governments had to resign at the "mere" mention of their names in the CAG report, then every March there will be a change in guard at both central and state levels.

The CAG had pointed out several irregularities in certain projects like street-scaping and street-lighting causing financial losses.

Lovely said there was "no role" of any political leader or the chief minister in the tender process.

"CAG reports are out every March and every time they find some fault in the tender process and if one resigns for being named in the CAG report, governments have to change every March," Lovely said.

Reiterating his government's position to cooperate with the Public Accounts Committee, he said if the PAC wants to know anything, the government will be more than happy to do so and maintained that the CAG was an auditor while the PAC was a Constitutional body that goes into the content of the report.

Asking the Bharatiya Janata Party to read the CAG report "properly" before demanding resignations, the minister said that the CAG has, in fact, acknowledged the infrastructure development and street lighting during the Commonwealth Games.

"In Page 427, the CAG has acknowledged the improvement in infrastructure that the Games have brought. They have also praised the infrastructure development brought by the Delhi government," he said.

Following the tabling of the CAG report in Parliament last week, the BJP has been demanding the resignation of Dikshit, saying that the auditor has indicted her.

Earlier, at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Dikshit, the ministers analysed the situation arising out of the CAG report and decided to give a "strong" reply to the allegations.

The government has already prepared its preliminary reply to the irregularities mentioned by the CAG.

Dikshit refused to comment about the uproar in Parliament over the Opposition's demand for her resignation on Monday morning, which had lead to its adjournment.

"On whatever is happening in Parliament, I will not comment on that," she told reporters.

Asked about the growing demand for her resignation, she said, "Let them demand."