The complaint lodged by BJP national secretary R P Singh and party leader Harish Madanlal Khurana accuses the AAP government of not acting against a company ‘violating agreements’. The BJP Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) against the AAP government over high security registration number plates.
According to the complainants, the company was found violating various concessionaire agreements to implement High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) in Delhi after the Supreme Court’s order. The government, meanwhile, shifted the blame on arbitration ordered by the Lieutenant Governor.
In their complaint, the BJP leaders alleged that NCT of Delhi issued the tender for implementation of HSRP in March 2012 and awarded the contract to M/s Rosmerta HSRP ventures Pvt Ltd (SPV of M/s Utsav Safety Systems Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Rosmerta Technologies Ltd), wherein M/s Utsav is a technical Partner/Type Approval Certificate (TAC) holder and M/s Rosmerta is merely a financial partner.
“The government received various complaints from different people and AAP government set up a committee on January 31, 2014 to look after the illegalities of the M/s Rosmerta HSRP Ventures Pvt. Ltd,” reads the complaint. The leaders said the committee found out that the concessionaire was procuring HSRP plates from unapproved and uncertified source. “This makes the possibility of affixing substandard HSRP on the vehicles in Delhi which also becomes a security issue. Secondly, affixation of HSRP at the centres in Delhi is going on without the prior approval of competent authority and thirdly, overcharging in affixing HSRP from the vehicle owners,” alleged Khurana.
However, sources said after getting the report of the committee, the then transport minister, Saurbh Bharadwaj, ordered termination of the agreement with the company. “On February 14, 2014, the day our government fell, Bhardwaj ordered the termination. Later, when the LG was ruling the Capital, it was sent to arbitration. The tribunal then stated the government is restrained from taking any coercive action… So, we could not take any action ,” said a government source. The last hearing in the case was on May 21, 2016.
Government sources said there was stay on cancellation of the contract by the tribunal. BJP contradicted this position on the stay. “There is a clear hand in glove situation between the AAP government and the company… I am challenging the government to show copy of stay,” said Khurana. The BJP leaders said Sikkim had rejected the bid of M/s Rosmerta Technologies Limited and the Madhya Pradesh government took adverse action against it.
Rosmerta, in a statement issued Wednesday, said the allegations were false. “On issue of termination of contract by State of Madhya Pradesh… company submitted that HSRP project in Madhya Pradesh is/was being implemented by a different company, with only the technical partner of the consortium being same as in Delhi and has been challenged in court. And Government of Sikkim termination was issued not on any finding of irregularity… but merely on the basis of issuance of show cause notice of the Govt of NCT of Delhi.” The company said allegations of overcharging and procuring number plates from unapproved sources were false and the Delhi government’s showcause notice was a matter of challenge in arbitration proceedings.
