Congress hopes Baijal will release Shunglu report

The Congress is hoping Anil Baijal, appointed the new Lt. Governor of Delhi on Thursday, will release the Shunglu Committee report that reportedly slams the Kejriwal government for its irregularities, a senior party leader said.

The Shunglu Committee investigated the alleged irregularities committed by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governmnet of Delhi.

The President on Thursday appointed Baijal as the new Lt. Governor of Delhi and also accepted the resignation of his predecessor Najeeb Jung, who put in his papers on December 22.

Welcoming Baijal's appointment, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said that he hoped Baijal would be "impartial in his dealings".

"We expect Anil Baijal to release Shunglu Committee report on corruption of AAP government soon after taking over!" Maken said in his Twitter post.

Jung set up a three-member committee to study alleged irregularities of the AAP government following an August 4 Delhi High Court ruling that accorded primacy to the Lt. Governor in Delhi's administration.

The committee, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General V.K. Shunglu, had submitted its report to the Lt. Governor on November 27.

A day after Jung's resignation, Maken alleged that a deal was struck between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP not to make the Shunglu Committee report public, which led to the LG's resignation.

The Congress leader also said: "Had the report been released, the CBI would have filed cases against the AAP government as there are irregularities in over 200 files."

--IANS

aks-and/in/vt