Onion deal inquiry

NEW DELHI, December 17: The Congress today took the sting out of the BJP Opposition's agenda in the first half of the Delhi Assembly toda...

NEW DELHI, December 17: The Congress today took the sting out of the BJP Opposition8217;s agenda in the first half of the Delhi Assembly today. The ruling party passed a resolution by voice-vote recommending a high-level inquiry on the alleged irregularities by the previous Delhi government in the purchase of onion and other edible items. It was also decided that action would be taken against those found to guilty in the onion purchase scam of the previous government. In an unprecedented move, the resolution was twice put to vote in order to convince the Opposition.

The resolution caught the BJP unawares as it had been inserted within the thanksgiving motion for the LG8217;s speech being presented by Congress MLA Mukesh Sharma. Sharma flashed the onion supply contract between Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd. DSCSC, Government of Delhi, and a Dubai-based firm, MSM Trading Est., to supply 3,000 metric tonne MT of onion for 255 dollars per MT.

As per the contract, the company was supposed to supply partial shipments within three days from the day of receipt of the acceptable letter of credit LoC.

Sharma told the House that the Sahib Singh government signed the Rs 14 crore approximately contract before he was made to quit as chief minister. The LoC was also sent to the Dubai-based company, which got the wind of the fact Verma was no longer at the helm and never delivered the onions, Sharma added. Before the Opposition benches had time to react, the resolution had been passed. Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Mukhi, in his thanksgiving speech, called the resolution a show of brute majority of the ruling party.

A soon as the House met at 2 pm, the Opposition raised noisy scenes trying to get an adjournment motion passed over the pulses mill raid issue. The ruckus continued for 45 minutes, till Speaker Choudhury Prem Singh called in the marshals to carry out BJP MLA Saheb Singh Chauhan. The MLA was expelled for a day for refusing to comply with the Speaker8217;s orders. The Speaker also overruled the adjournment motion on the grounds that such a motion cannot be moved before the House goes through the thanksgiving motion for the L-G address as per schedule. The Opposition staged a walkout in protest before the House could adopt the motion of thanks for the LG8217;s address and was adjourned sine die.