A court had yesterday asked the police to apprise it of the action taken by it on a complaint against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely for alleged corruption in grant of fitness certificates to commercial vehicles.
A statement issued by Principal Secretary Transport R Chandramohan termed as "malafide" attributing motive on the part of Dikshit and Lovely in the award of the contract to M/S ESP which was given the contract for fitness testing of commercial vehicles.
"No undue favour has been extended by the Transport Department to M/S ESP outside the rules. The contract has been awarded to the firm with the approval of the council of ministers after following the laid down procedure for due diligence. The decision was never taken by either the Chief Minister or the then Minister of Transport in their respective individual official capacities," Chandramohan said in the statement.
Metropolitan Magistrate Neeraj Gaur asked the Anti- Corruption Branch to file an action-taken-report by July 4 detailing the steps it has taken on the complaint filed by RTI activist Vivek Garg.
Besides Dikshit and Lovely, the complaint also named former Transport Commissioner R K Verma and the M/s ESP.
Garg had in his complaint alleged that "due to corrupt and malafide intentions of the said ministers (Dikshit and Lovely), officer (R K Verma) and company (ESP India), no tender bid was called and the contract was given in contravention of the law."
Automated inspection and certification test is done on all commercial vehicles registered in Delhi. Vehicles which clear this test are given fitness certificates. (more)