Himachal Industries Minister and a close confidant of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Mukesh Agnihotri on Tuesday termed the allegations leveled by leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley as a conspiracy to taint the image of the Chief Minister. In a statement issued here, Agnihotri expressed surprise that Jaitley had made an attempt to sensationalise the issue and mislead the people by hiding the facts which was an immoral act. He said that the misdeeds of Dhumal family would be exposed in the public soon.
The Minister said that the Sai Kothi Project was allocated to M/s Bentore Energy and Technology ltd by the then Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal during the year 2002 which he was not telling to the media and people of the State. The Dhumal Government gave extension to this project twice in year 2009 and 2010 for 21 months and 15 days respectively. He said that Jaitely had hidden the facts that the Congress government had rejected the proposal of the company to renew the project between April 2003 to 2004 thrice. The company filed a petition in Himachal Pradesh High Court and the Court ordered to give this project to Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board. later, the Company went in appeal in the Supreme Court of India which directed to reconsider the matte of allocation of this project. Agnihotri claimed that BJP was feeling jittery of the development made during one year tenure of the present Government and the successful rally organised at Hamirpur by the Congress party. The Minister alleged that the duo of Jaitely and Anurag Thakur was hatching conspiracy against Virbhadra Singh as Thakur and his family has made HPCA as their personal fiefdom. “The BJP leaders were feeling the heat of the inquiry which was being conducted into the irregularities of the HPCA and therefore, they were hatching this conspiracy to affect the inquiry against HPCA,” he said in his statement