The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) be constituted at the earliest to investigate the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Delhi excise policy of the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

The demand of the grand old party came a day after the CAG report on the previous government’s 2021-2022 excise policy was tabled in Delhi Assembly. The report revealed that it allegedly led to a loss of over Rs 2,000 crore to the government exchequer.

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Addressing a press conference, Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav said, “Out of the 14 CAG reports, only one related to liquor policy was tabled in the Assembly. Congress had earlier suspected that there were many irregularities in this policy, which was going to affect the then government’s revenue. We have been raising that the hard earned money of the people of Delhi is being misused and looted. All these became true in the CAG report.”

Attacking the AAP, he said, “The CAG report has revealed that the money of the people of Delhi was looted. The then AAP government kept saying that they are increasing the revenue of the government, but the truth is that loot of Rs 2002 crore was carried out.”

The Delhi Congress chief called for the formation of the PAC to probe the CAG report.

“We want a PAC to be constituted as soon as possible. The CAG report should be investigated by the PAC so that all those who were involved in the loot can be punished,” he said.

Yadav also claimed that the Delhi Congress had also given a written complaint related to liquor policy to the investigating agencies alleging BJP’s involvement.

“There are some important questions related to the role of some big leaders of BJP and the then Lieutenant Governor (LG), which were ignored in this CAG report. Why and who took the decision to change three excise directors within a year? The then LG had given permission to implement the liquor policy of the Kejriwal government. Why has no investigation been done on it till date?,” he said.

Claiming that without the permission of the corporation, liquor vends cannot be opened, the Delhi Congress chief claimed at that time BJP was in the corporation and it allowed Delhi government to open liquor vends even in “non-conforming areas”.

“Our demand is that the scope of investigation into liquor scam should be widened. Investigation should be done on the written complaint given by Congress against BJP,” he added.

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit also called for a broader investigation into the alleged liquor scam.

“The CAG report stated that the intention behind the liquor policy was changed repeatedly. This policy was made due to the relationship between the government and liquor contractors and for their own interests. There should be a separate investigation in this matter,” he said.