The Congress party will focus its effort in the coming Vidhan Sabha session on seeking answers related to the scam in the widening of National Highway 74.
With the Central Government appearing reluctant to allow an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the scam, the Congress will raise various questions in the Assembly session pertaining to this issue. If the treasury bench is unable to provide satisfactory answers, the opposition MlAs will stage protest, said the leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, Indira Hridayesh.
Addressing the media here on Tuesday, Hridayesh said that among the various issues to be raised by the Congress, the scam in NH-74 widening work is the biggest issue. She said, “The NH 74 scam is the biggest topic right now. Recently the home of a former reader of the sub divisional magistrate’s office was raided with the officials finding about 350 official files, gold, silver and papers of land plots. I talked to the police and learnt that all files have not been found yet. At such a juncture when the scam currently estimated to have cost about Rs 386 crore is expected to reach the cost of about Rs 500 crore , the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari writing to the Chief Minister against CBI inquiry is highly questionable. In the letter he also issued a veiled threat in case of state insisting on a CBI inquiry writing that the ministry might have to ‘reconsider the usefulness of other projects’ in the state. The probe conducted by the then Kumaon Commissioner D Senthil Pandiyan resulted in eight officials being found guilty- with action being taken against seven of them. All are junior level officials who cannot possible orchestrate such a large scam on their own without the involvement of their seniors. Recently, the attorney general Mukul Rohatgi had appeared in the high court seeking removal of the names of three National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials from the case FIR. On the other hand, the state government transferred Pandiyan from the post of Kumaon commissioner after he exposed the scam. It appears as if union minister Gadkari is trying to shield officers under him while on the other hand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat appears to be unable to protect officials under him,” she opined.
The leader of opposition further questioned whether the state was serious about its purported zero-tolerance policy towards corruption considering its stance in the NH 74 scam. Responding to a query regarding the scam considered to having been orchestrated during the term of the Congress-led State Government, Hridayesh said that the Congress fully supports punishment for all those found guilty, including those involved during the term of the Congress-led Government. She said, “For the coming assembly session we have list of notices seeking information on various aspects of this scam. We will demand that Pandiyan’s inquiry report be tabled in the House. We will also seek information about the area of land for which the land use was changed and the rates which were ascertained. If we fail to get satisfactory replies from the government, we will stage protest in the assembly. We will continue to protest and raise this issue until necessary action is taken by the authorities,” she stressed.
Hridayesh opined that many layers of the NH 74 scam were yet to be unraveled. She said that after Pandiyan’s transfer, the district magistrate and senior superintendent of police might be next in line for transfer for their action which resulted in the arrest of the former reader and recovery of incriminating items.
She further said that during the previous assembly session, it had been decided that the next session would be held at Gairsain but the present government is not doing so. The hike in electricity rates from 80 paise to 200 paise per unit without taking the public and opposition into confidence will also be another major which the Congress will raise in the Vidhan Sabha. Regarding the merger of rural areas with municipal areas, she said that the Congress strongly opposes any such move as it negates the role of Panchayats, elected Panchayat representatives and ignores the problems already being faced in municipal areas. She cited her constituency Haldwani, stating that though it was stated to be among the dirtiest towns in state, 56 villages were slated to be merged into its municipal limits which would only increase the area affected by the municipal corporation’s work inefficiency.