NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Adesh Gupta on Tuesday said that the Delhi government was working only for the benefit of the liquor mafia in Delhi.
“The focus of the Delhi government is to ensure how to give maximum benefit to the liquor mafia in Delhi. It doesn’t matter to them how much loss the exchequer suffers,” Gupta said.
He further added that the proceeds of this illegal excise policy were used in Punjab polls. “The Delhi government was under pressure from liquor mafia and the illegal money obtained from this policy was used in Punjab polls,” Gupta added.
After Delhi LG Vinai Kumar Saxena sought a CBI inquiry into the Delhi government’s new excise policy, deputy Chief minister Manish Sisodia announced a rollback of the new policy on Saturday.
The Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that deputy CM Sisodia had announced in the Assembly that the new excise policy will boost the revenue of the Delhi government. “It was expected that the Delhi government would get ₹2375 crores as revenue in the first quarter of 2022-13. But it had got only ₹505 crores,” Bidhuri said.
Bidhuri accused Kejriwal and Sisodia of working under instructions from the liquor mafia. “There are 272 Nagar Nigam Wards in Delhi but there could be no liquor shops in 100 Nagar Nigam Wards. But under pressure from the Delhi liquor mafia, this government allowed the opening of liquor shops flouting rules and regulations,” he added.
Bidhuri further accused that there were assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur and AAP were in need of money. “So whatever conditions the liquor contractors insisted on, this government agreed,” he said.
Despite harsh observation from the Delhi High Court, CM Kejriwal has not yet sacked minister Satyendar Jain who is currently in jail. Criticising the chief minister for not sacking Jain, Gupta said, “Kejriwal is not sacking Jain because he is himself involved in corruption.”