BJP demands Delhi minister's resignation

Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay on Saturday demanded state Transport Minister Gopal Rai's resignation over the alleged auto-rickshaw permit scam.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was involved in the scam and the party would protest against him on Monday at the Delhi Secretariat.

"Kejriwal government is so much into corruption that they are even fooling their biggest supporters, the auto-drivers. Earlier the corruption in transport department was due to middlemen but now AAP volunteers and MLAs are doing that," Upadhyaya said.

The BJP has requested Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to seek a report from the transport department on the issue and the investigation should be handed over to the anti-corruption branch, he said.

Upadhaya claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, led by Kejriwal, announced issuance of 10,000 auto permits.

"They had earlier announced issuance of 10,000 auto permits. After this around 17,000 applications were received and that is where the corruption started."

On Saturday, the Delhi government suspended three transport department officials over corruption in issuing fresh letters of interest (LOIs) for three-wheelers.

The three officials - Deputy Commissioner (auto rickshaw unit) Roy Biswas, inspector Manish Puri, and a clerk Anil Yadav - were placed under suspension with immediate effect after a high-level meeting chaired by Kejriwal.