At a time when a row involving Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Dasburma for his alleged involvement with Artha Tatwa (AT) Group is yet to die down, the BJP on Thursday raised finger at Panchayati Raj and law Minister Arun Sahu accusing him of promoting the business of chit fund companies in the State.
Showing a photograph of Minister Sahu being felicitated as Odisha Bhaskar Youth Icon-2010, the programme which was organised jointly by three chit fund companies, Arthta Tatwa, Seashore and SlB on June 20, 2011, party vice-president Sameer Mohanty told reporters here that it showed the depth of attachment of BJD leaders and Ministers with chit fund firms.
“Will Minister Arun Sahu say the money spent on the programme was not people’s hard-earned moneyIJ Why was he conferred with the awardIJ Was he the Youth Icon of the chit fund firmsIJ” questioned Mohanty.
Claiming that the scam-tainted money collection firms had flourished in the State under the patronage of the ruling party, Mohanty said senior BJD leader and the then number two Minister Surjya Narayan Patro, MlAs Prabhat Tripathy, Samir Dash and Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik attended the youth icon programme thereby giving licence to the companies to loot people.
He sought a reply from the Minister what prompted the BJD functionaries to attend such an event organised by the ‘cheaters’.