Congress Delhi unit President Ajay Maken on Friday accused the AAP government of compromising national security by awarding a contract to install CCTVs here to a Chinese firm, even as the AAP claimed that efforts were on to halt the project.
Maken also sought Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation and warned of a protest on Sunday if he did not do so.
“The Aam Aadmi Party government has compromised national security for kickbacks in the installation of closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) in Delhi by awarding the contract to Chinese public sector undertaking Hikvision, in which Chinese government has 58 per cent share, through BEL (Bharat Electronics Ltd) by making it a vendor of BEL. It is an open-and-shut case of corruption and compromises national security,” the Congress leader claimed.
He said his party will approach the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Central Vigilance Commission and the courts, if needed, for a thorough inquiry into the “CCTV scam”.
“An inquiry will also be sought as to how an Indian PSU BEL, which comes under the Defence Ministry, included Chinese Hikvision as its vendor company,” Maken said.
In response, senior AAP leader Gopal Rai alleged that efforts were on to halt the CCTV installation and urged the central government, the Prime Minister and Maken to “not play with the issue of women’s safety”.
“The process was on for a while. When things reached the final stage, Maken sniffed a scam.
“He (Maken) claims the tender is being awarded to a private company. The tender document clearly states the name of the two companies: L&T and BEL. These companies participated in both tender exercises. The bid difference between them is more than double. Now, a Cabinet note is being prepared. It is based on rate contract… I feel Maken is batting for the private company,” Rai said.
He also attacked Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for forming a committee on the issue.
“The L-G was aware of the entire process. He had all the documents. Now that the cameras were about to be installed, he formed a committee by flagging security issue,” the AAP leader said.
On Tuesday, Baijal formed the committee to come up with a standard operating procedure for the installation, operation and monitoring of closed-circuit televisions.
AAP Spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj rejected the corruption charge at a press conference here.
“BEL is a central government company. It is a company of Modi ji. Go and ask him why he went to China and why the tender is being given to a Chinese company. Why are you questioning us?
“BEL does not manufacture cameras, and when it is taking a tender to install cameras, they will buy it from some other company. And importing cameras from China is not illegal; there is no such law,” he added.