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Under pressure over severe indictment by the Shunglu Committee, the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dixit, on Tuesday said its finding was “self-contradictory”. She criticised the panel for lack of understanding on her government's role in conducting the Commonwealth Games.
Rejecting the findings of the PM-appointed probe panel, which indicted both the Lt Governor, Mr Tejinder Khanna, and her for alleged irregularities in certain projects, Ms Dixit said she would be the first person to question herself if any wrongdoing had been committed by her.
“It was not my duty to go to project sites at midnight or 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the morning. I did everything possible so that India's image is not affected,” Ms Dixit said in an interview, a day after she met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.
‘Not hurt'
“I am not hurt by it (the Shunglu Committee report) or anything like that but I do feel that there has been a lack of understanding about what we did,” she said, calling the report “self-contradictory.”
“Broadly our observation is that some conclusions have been arrived at without adequate support of facts. Assumptions, presumptions have come. Second, the report contradicts itself... Show us a case of corruption. Just show us that this was a corrupt practice. We will take action,” she said.
The Chief Minister, during a meeting with the Prime Minister, conveyed to him that the findings of the panel were “unfair” and “inconsistent.”
“We are going to reply paragraph-by-paragraph to the report. What surprised us was the report had not even come to us but it was available in the public domain. When something comes in the public domain then you and I have equal right to say what your understanding is and what our understanding is,” she said.
Asked whether the Shunglu committee ever sought her opinion before finalising the report, Ms Dixit said she did not know whether it had terms of reference to do that.
Another report
Meanwhile, the Shunglu committee has blamed CWG Organising Committee and certain officials for delay in executing contracts for the games.
In its recent report submitted to the Prime Minister's Office, the committee is understood to have stated that there were indications of “collusive/partial bidding” and “manipulation of documents” in floating tenders.
The Shunglu panel has also questioned ‘delays' in executing number of contracts, sources said.
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