Delhi Lokayukta should answer on report: Sheila Dikshit

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Friday downplayed the Lokayukta report to Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna, which sought a review of recommendations about censuring Dikshit for allegedly misrepresenting facts about construction of residential flats ahead of the 2008 state elections, saying that only the Lokayukta could answer about the matter.

"You should ask this question to Lokayukta. I have said it earlier that it is up to the Lokayukta to answer how justifiable is it to raise with the president of India," Dikshit told reporters.

In 2011, Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin had criticised the chief minister for making an allegedly false statement about the readiness of 60,000 flats for the poor ahead of the state election in 2008.

Earlier, Sarin had sent his recommendation to President Pratibha Patil for cautioning Dikshit not to misrepresent the facts.

However, the president had given a clean chit to Dikshit and observed that the urban development department had not been careful in releasing the brochure relating to construction of these houses and directed it to be cautious in future.

In its report to Khanna, Sarin has argued that the president was not properly advised about the facts of the case.

"It was neither the case of the complainant nor the urban development department or its officers. The CM had duly owned her message and had not claimed that the department was responsible for this. She had rather justified the message," the report stated.

"The matter be sent, in the first instance, to the president of India for reconsideration and administration of caution to the CM as originally recommended, failing which, it be placed before the Delhi assembly," it read.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Vijendra Gupta has asked that Congress president Sonia Gandhi should ask Sheila Dikshit to resign on the charges of misleading the Lokayukta.