BJP to corner govt over PWD minister

The Congress may have put the Lokayukta’s recommendation to sack Delhi public works department minister Rajkumar Chauhan on backburner, but the opposition does not seem to be willing to let the issue lose its steam.

The Congress may have put the Lokayukta’s recommendation to sack Delhi public works department minister Rajkumar Chauhan on backburner, but the opposition does not seem to be willing to let the issue lose its steam.

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Leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijay Kumar Malhotra said they would soon meet the President of India and Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna to lay stress on the minister’s removal.

“We will meet President Pratibha Patil to request her to withdraw her pleasure for continuation of Chauhan in office,” Malhotra said.

With Delhi’s budget session slated to begin from Tuesday, Malhotra added that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) would raise the issue “vociferously” in the House if Chauhan was not removed before the session began.

The Delhi Lokayukta had found Chauhan guilty of “misconduct” of “grave nature” for influencing a team of sales tax officials in a survey related to tax evasion at a south Delhi-based resort last year.

Apart from Chauhan, the BJP has worked out a list of 20 more issues to corner the ruling Congress in the budget session of the Assembly. Malhotra said his party has sought special discussion on 21 subjects which include price rise, Delhi’s poor law and order situation, CWG irregularities, the scarcity of drinking water and the Lokayukta’s recommendation on the minister.

Malhotra said his party would also take the government to task for failing to regularise unauthorised colonies which had been given provisional regularisation certificates in 2008.