Land scam: AAP steps up pressure on Vijay Goel, demands resignation

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today demanded Union minister Vijay Goel’s resignation over an allotment of a plot of land to an NGO associated with him and said a thorough investigation should be conducted into the matter.

It also alleged that the claims made by the Union sports and youth affairs minister regarding his links with the Vaish Aggarwal Education Society (VAES), the NGO, were “false”.

According to a report published in a national daily yesterday, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) “changed” the norms and layout plan of the plot, which was earlier “earmarked for a post office”.

Goel had termed the allegations against him as “baseless”.

He had said, “The (news) report claimed that I was the vice-president of VAES, but I had resigned from that post in 2013 itself. I am not even active in the day-to-day activities of VAES.”

AAP’s Delhi unit secretary Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “He (Goel) had claimed that he had no connection with the NGO, but his own website says he is the vice-president of the Vaish Aggarwal Education Society. His children are closely involved in the running of the organisation.”

Senior AAP leader Ashutosh demanded Goel’s resignation and a thorough investigation into the matter.

“It is not the first time that Goel has been given land in such manner. In 2002, when Goel was a minister in the then National Democratic Alliance government, as per a report published by the Times of India, the same society (Vaish Aggarwal Educational Society or VAES) was given prime land on Mehrauli-Badarpur Road,” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj told media persons in Delhi.

The charges of corruption against Goel took a serious turn on Thursday when Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, too tweeted saying that the revelation had left him pained.

His tweet had read, “It pains me dat Delhi Govt not being given land 4 setting moh clinics. Even Del Govt’s own land not being allowed for moh clinics n this. (sic)”

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