26 May,2011 08:20 AM IST | | MiD DAY Correspondent
Trashes its findings, saying they were based on 'presumptions' andu00a0 'assumptions'
The Delhi Government on Wednesday rejected all allegations made by the Shunglu Committee regarding bungling in the Commonwealth Games projects. Directed by the Home Ministry to make its submission within stipulated time on the allegations by the Shunglu committee, Delhi Cabinet on Wednesday approved its final response, rejecting point-by-point the charges of the PM-appointed panel.
The over 1,000 page report, prepared by a three-member committee of top officials, gives paragraph-wise response to the observations made by the Shunglu panel while trashing all its findings, arguing that they were based on "presumptions" and "assumptions".
"The Cabinet has approved the report prepared by the three-member committee. We are giving paragraph-wise response to the Shunglu Committee's findings. It will be sent to the Home Ministry in the next two-three days," Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said after the Cabinet meeting.
The Home Ministry late last month had sent the report of the Shunglu Committee to Delhi Government, asking it to file a detailed response to the findings within a month. Asked about allegations made against her by the panel, she refused to give a direct reply but said, "It is a reply by the government and I belong to government." Officials said the Government has rejected the whole report as it is based on "presumptions" and "assumptions" without verification of the facts. Dikshit said the response from MCD and NDMC against whom the Shunglu panel had also levelled allegations will be sent along with the government's response to the Home Ministry.
"We have received responses from MCD and NDMC and we will forward their responses also along with ours," Dikshit said.
Besides holding various agencies, including the PWD, responsible for irregularities, the Shunglu Committee had blamed Dikshit for alleged bungling in various Games projects. The city government, which already rejected the findings of the panel as a "product of paranoia", had sent a brief report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month, trashing the report. In the brief report, the government had rejected almost all the findings of the panel and instead accused it of deliberately choosing to adopt a logic of "convenience" in finding corruption in every policy and every tender of the government. Although the brief report was more of a rhetoric, the final report contains all details about the CWG projects including reasons for cost escalation, delays and other issues raised by the Shunglu panel, sources said.
BJP attacks CM
BJP on Wednesday attacked Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for rejecting the V K Shunglu Committee report on anomalies in Commonwealth Games projects and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh if he would keep his word of acting on the recommendations of the probe panel. "The Delhi government and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit have rejected the Shunglu Committee report. This is part of the old Congress strategy of first denying a scam, then delaying imposition of an inquiry and then denying the findings of the inquiry," BJP spokesperson Jagat Prakash Nadda said. The BJP said the PM should now clarify if he still plans to take action against those indicted by the Shunglu Committee. "Now when Sheila Dikshit has rejected the Shunglu report and the Prime Minister had said action would be taken on it, we want to know what is the status?" Nadda said.
