New Delhi [India], May 17 (ANI): In a scathing attack on the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that top bureaucrats who deliberately blocked public welfare schemes under the AAP government are now being transferred out of Delhi to shield them from jail time.
The senior AAP leader said Finance Secretary A.C. Verma and Health Secretary Deepak Kumar stalled vital projects–ranging from pensions and salaries to health schemes–causing immense hardship to the people of Delhi.
He pointed out that now that the BJP is in power, the same officers face a legal bind: clear the funds they once blocked or risk jail, forcing the government to quietly move them out.
During a press conference, AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “For the past two years, the elected government of Delhi was repeatedly saying that certain IAS officers are working in a manner that deliberately blocks public welfare schemes meant for Delhiites. The elected government has time and again demanded action against these officers, calling for their suspension and removal from Delhi. These officers were conspiring to paralyse Delhi’s functioning in order to help the BJP. This was a deliberate conspiracy.”
Citing specific examples, he said, “Two such officers were Ashish Chandra Verma, who was the Finance Secretary, and S.B. Deepak Kumar, who was the Health Secretary. On multiple occasions, the elected government, the Chief Minister, and ministers pointed out that A.C. Verma was deliberately blocking many of Delhi’s schemes.”
“He first halted the budget of thousands of crores for the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). He withheld funds for all DJB projects, due to which sewerage machinery couldn’t be procured, ongoing projects were stalled, and payments for work like installing tube wells and water pipelines were stopped,” he added.
On how this impacted service delivery, the AAP Delhi State President said, “Payments of contractors who had already completed work were frozen. As a result, these contractors refused to take up new contracts. Similarly, old-age pensions were blocked by the Finance Department.”
“Salaries at Mohalla Clinics were held up for months. Even electricity bills and rent for Mohalla Clinics were stopped just before the MCD elections. Yoga trainers’ salaries were withheld, and bus marshals’ salaries were stopped–and later, they were removed altogether,” he emphasised.
Saurabh Bharadwaj further added, “Financial assistance meant for students in SC/ST categories was halted. DTC pensioners and employees had their pensions and salaries stopped. Under the Farishtey Scheme, accident victims were treated free of cost–but even that scheme’s funds were blocked.”
He stated that payments to private hospitals for free tests and surgeries were withheld, creating hardship for Delhi’s people. All of this was done by the Finance Department when Ashish Chandra Verma was the Secretary. He wrote arbitrary and baseless objections on the files to block these public welfare schemes.
On the current political context, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Now that BJP has a government in Delhi, Ashish Chandra Verma faces a dilemma–how will he now approve on file the same works he earlier blocked? If he now releases the funds that he previously stalled, he will land in jail. Why? Because when you hold back public funds citing false objections for a whole year, and then suddenly reverse that decision just because the ruling party has changed–that contradiction is now on the record. It’s all there in the files. On one hand, he wrote one thing, and on the other, he’s doing the opposite. That’s why he will go to jail.”
The senior AAP leader alleged, “To protect Ashish Chandra Verma from imprisonment, someone else is now being made to write on the file that what Ashish Chandra Verma had previously stated was wrong, and that the money should in fact be released. This is why Ashish Chandra Verma is now being transferred.” (ANI)
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