10 ex-JD-S leaders join Congress
Mysuru: Ten Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) members, including seven former MLAs, on Sunday joined the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka.
"Ten JD-S leaders joined Congress in the presence of the party President Rahul Gandhi," tweeted Congress' state unit president G. Parameshwara.
The leaders - B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, M.C. Nanaiah, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, R. Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, H.C. Balakrishna, Bheema Naik, Ramesh Bandisidde Gowda, Iqbal Ansari, Sarovar Srinivas and B. Ramakrishna - joined the party during party chief Rahul Gandhi's rally here, party leaders said.
Of the 10 leaders, the seven members of the assembly had quit JD-S and tendered their resignations to Assembly Speaker K.B. Koliwad on Saturday.
The seven - Khan, Murthy, Chaluvarayaswamy, Ansari, Balakrishna, Gowda and Naik - were earlier suspended by JD-S for allegedly defying the party's whip and cross-voting for Congress during the 2016 Rajya Sabha polls.
Khan is a three-time MLA from Chamrajpet assembly constituency, Murthy represents Pulakeshinagar assembly segment in Bengaluru and Ansari, the Gangavathi constituency in Koppal district.
Balakrishna, Bandisiddegowda and Naik are respectively the MLAs from Magadi constituency in Ramanagara district, Srirangapatna constituency in Mandya district and Hagaribommanahalli constituency in Ballari district.
Nanaiah, Srinivas and Ramakrishna are the former JD-S Members of the Legislative Council.
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Prez nod for FIR against AAP's Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain in Rs 2,000-cr classroom 'scam'
New Delhi, Mar 13 (PTI): President Droupadi Murmu has given her approval for the registration of an FIR against AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain in an alleged scam of Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools, sources said.
In 2022, the Delhi government's vigilance directorate recommended a probe into the alleged scam and submitted a report to the chief secretary.
The President has given her approval for registering the FIR against Sisodia and Jain in connection with the alleged scam during their tenures as ministers in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, the sources said.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), in a report dated February 17, 2020, highlighted "glaring irregularities" in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools by the Public Works Department (PWD).
The President's approval came under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act that pertains to "enquiry or inquiry or investigation of offences relatable to recommendations made or decision taken by public servant in discharge of official functions or duties".
Reacting to the development, senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP of carrying out a witch-hunt against its political rivals.
The BJP has no interest or intention to fulfil the promises it made to the people of Delhi. Its only agenda is to carry out a witch-hunt against its political rivals to stifle the voice of people, the former minister said in a statement.
The BJP-led central government has already decided to prosecute every political adversary of the party and grant approvals to move the case forward but it should wait for the judicial process to begin, he said.
In July 2019, BJP leader Harish Khurana and then AAP rebel MLA Kapil Mishra, now a minister in the Delhi government, lodged a police complaint about the alleged scam.
According to a report prepared by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the Delhi government, the complainants alleged that there was a scam worth over Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of classrooms and school buildings in Delhi. The work was done at a highly inflated cost by the Delhi government.
The alleged scam involves the construction of around 12,748 classrooms.
The ACB report said the total expenditure incurred for constructing the classrooms and school buildings was around Rs 2,892.65 crore. They were allegedly constructed at the rate of Rs 8,800 per square feet, whereas it was common knowledge that the average construction cost (even for a builder of flats) was around Rs 1,500 per square feet.
The total cost for constructing a classroom and school building, according to the tender awarded, was allegedly around Rs 24.86 lakh per room, whereas such rooms are easily constructed in Delhi at around Rs 5 lakh per room, it said.
The prices were increased almost five times to defraud the taxpayer by siphoning off money from the public exchequer in the garb of construction cost, the report said.
Even for a 5-star hotel, top ultra-luxury quality construction is around Rs 5,000 to Rs 5,500 per square feet, it said.
The complainants submitted a copy of documents in which information received under the RTI Act in respect of the construction of 18 classrooms in the Govt Girls Senior Secondary School, Nathupura, Burari (school ID:-1207111) revealed that they were constructed at a cost of Rs 12 crore, the ACB report said.
