WHY DELHI CM SILENT ON RAIDS CONDUCTED BY CBI ON VAT DEPARTMENT

GOVT FAILED TO ISSUE ANY STATEMENT IRKED TRADERS

 

The raid conducted by CBI yesterday at headquater of VAT Department of Delhi Government is quite shame for the Government-said the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). CAIT Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal has demanded Delhi Chief Minister Smt.Shiela Diskshit who is Finance Minister also to order for a high level probe in to the matter. Mr. Khandelwal regretted that the Goverment is taking this matter very lightly as inspite of a raid by CBI on a Government Department, so far the Chief Minister has not issued any statement on this matter though we were ewxpecting the Government to come out with a statement.

On one hand the traders are being harrased by the VAT officials whereas on the other hand the Government has maintained absolute silence and no cognisance has been taken on such a serious matter. The Government can not escape from its responsibility. It is pertinent on the part of the Government to announce publicaly as to what was the modus operendi of the raid ? As to why the CBI was forced to conduct raid on VAT headquarter ? Was it a raid our some other activity ? How many people were caught by CBI and what action has been taken  by the Government -asked Khandelwal.

The CAIT has said that the Government should not try to put curtain on such a grave issue rather it should investigate as to why such tendenacy is developed in officials. It appears that the discritionary powers available in the hands ofjunior officials and loop holes in various notifications issued in recent months seems to be the root cause for generation of high level corruption amongst officials and a tool to harras and victimise traders. The CAIT has demanded that the Government should streamline the working of VAT Department and ensure greater transparency in the Department. Only blaming the traders is not going to bring any solution.

The CAIT has also said that the traders of Delhi were complaining against attrocities by VAT officials since a long time with VAT Department and the Government but so far nothing concrete has been evolved so far and regular new notifications of the Department are loading traders wigth much paper work, another root cause of growing corruption. The Governnment should take this matter seriously and take all effective steps to maintain reputation of the VAT Department.