Maintaining its focus on the alleged scam in widening of National Highway 74 in Udham Singh Nagar district, the Congress has alleged that the State has transferred a bureaucrat for taking action in this case. Under pressure from the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, to suppress a probe into the alleged National Highway 74 scam, the State Government transferred
D Senthil Pandiyan out of the post of the Kumaon commissioner.
leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha and Haldwani MlA Indira Hridayesh levelled this allegation here on Friday. She was speaking at a protest demonstration outside the district magistrate’s office in Rudrapur against the Bharatiya Janata Party Government desisting from directing a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged scam.
Speaking at the protest, Hridayesh said that as the Kumaon commissioner, Pandiyan had monitored the probe which had detected the NH 74 scam amounting to about Rs 350 crore. His transfer from the post is a cause for serious concern. The role of senior officers of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the scam is likely to be exposed by the investigation. The union minister stating that CBI probe will affect the morale of officers makes it clear that the Union Government is actually abetting corruption, alleged the leader of opposition. She further said that on the one hand a scam amounting to hundreds of crores had been orchestrated while on the other hand, the Union Government is attempting to avoid the CBI inquiry by sending the attorney general Mukul Rohatgi to the Uttarakhand high court to advocate for the NHAI officials.
The Congress strongly opposes this stance and in
the coming Vidhan Sabha session, the party will also
stage protest demonstration where it is needed, she added. Referring to Gadkari, Hridayesh accused the union minister of trying to encroach upon the work of the state government.
Former State Minister Tilak Raj Behad led scores of Congress workers from across the district who participated in the protest demonstration.