Delhi assembly says ex-speaker yet to return items

By IANS,

New Delhi: Former Delhi speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh is yet to return some items, given to him when he was holding the office, an assembly reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed. An aide to Prem Singh, however, said the information was “untrue”.


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According to the Delhi assembly’s reply to a query of RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, items like computers, printer, scanner and others worth nearly Rs.191,920 have not been returned by the former speaker.

The reply stated that several items like VCR, tables and chairs, cooler, electric kettle, TV trolley, amplifier, vacuum cleaner, dinner set, room heater given to him when he held the speaker’s office have not been returned till Monday (April 19). The items are worth Rs.149,922.

It said that the ex-speaker, who at present is a legislator from Ambedkar Nagar constituency, has not returned two mobile phones, two cordless phones and a digital system worth Rs.331,047.

To Agrawal’s query if Singh’s monthly pension was stopped for recovery of cost for non-returned items, the assembly in its reply said: “The MLA is not eligible for pension but from December 2008 onwards no salary is being paid to him. No other steps have been taken except stoppage of his pay by the secretariat.”

The assembly also stated that the Indian consulate general in New York has demanded dues of $960 from Singh for accommodation of his son and daughter-in-law who accompanied him during his trip.

However, in his reply to the assembly over dues of $960, Prem Singh said his tour to the US was official and his expenditure towards accommodation was required to be paid by the assembly secretariat.

Singh is one of the senior most leaders of the Delhi Congress and has not lost an election in the last 50 years. He has won all elections on a Congress ticket from the Ambedkar Nagar constituency in south Delhi since 1958.

When contacted on his official mobile, an aide of Prem Singh said: “It is untrue and there is nothing like it. Can a person, who is winning election for last 50 years, do such a thing?”

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