Barkha complains to ACB against Maliwal, Kejriwal

Congress leader Barkha Singh has given a complaint in the Anti-Corruption Branch against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal for alleged nepotism in recruitment in the panel.

Singh, herself a former chief of the Commission, alleged that the AAP government had hired about 85 of  its party workers and broken the rules by taking in more staff than sanctioned number of posts. Maliwal denied any wrongdoing and claimed the additional hands were hired to clear backlog of cases.

Singh  highlighted the case of the daughter of AAP leader H S Phoolka, Prabhsahay Kaur, who is drawing a monthly salary of Rs 35,000. She also pointed out that former president of AAP women wing, Promila Gupta, is working in the Commission on a salary of Rs 25,000.

Singh accused Kejriwal of rewarding his old aide Raj Mangal Prasad, a child rights activist, who is drawing a monthly salary of Rs 1,00,000. “The said employees are enjoying lucrative monthly salaries from the exchequer of the NCT of Delhi, thereby causing misappropriation and misuse of government funds...” Singh said in her complaint to the ACB.

The Congress leader said the appointment of AAP workers was done in violation of the rules of the DCW which mandate transparent hiring through a panel of consultants. Maliwal hit back by blaming Singh for leaving a huge backlog of cases in the Commission during her eight-year association with the panel.

“We have hired people to dispose the pending cases,” said Maliwal, whose husband is an active AAP leader in Haryana. Earlier in a letter to Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, Singh alleged that the DCW, under Maliwal, had committed financial lapses.

The Congress leader alleged the budget for the commission had been increased from Rs 3.75 crore to Rs 7 crore “to accommodate members and volunteers of AAP at higher salaries”.

She alleged  AAP volunteers, including Maliwal’s media advisor Bhupinder Singh, were being paid salaries between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1,00,000 a month. She also alleged insensitive behaviour of the new recruits in the Commission.