Former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said the Congress-led State Government was free to conduct any kind of inquiry into any of the controversies related either to alleged irregularities in Kumbha 2010, Citurgia or Dhaincha seed purchase that came up when he was at the helm of the State Government as the Chief Minister.
The former Chief Minister lost his cool at a Press conference he was addressing at the BJP State head office here on Friday when these scams were mentioned. “I would sue whosoever talks about Citurgia or Kumbha with the High Court having dismissed the case on the basis of CAG report,” he roared.
Things turned conspicuously silent after the BJP leader thus erupted in anger.
Interestingly, Nishank had called the Press conference to pillory the State Government over the alleged embezzlement vi-a-vis the 2013 disaster relief operations scam. However, when pointed questions on the scams that erupted during his tenure as Chief Minister were hurled at him by some mediapersons he lost temper. When it was pointed out that as per the CAG report details Rs 40 crore supposedly spent have remained unaccounted for, he thundered, saying that with the embezzlement controversies having been buried by the High Court ruling, anybody raking up such matters would invite contempt of the court.
“I would sue them if the situation so warrants,” he warned. As the mediapersons refused to be thus ‘browbeaten’, heated arguments followed.
Interestingly, Nishank alluded to the CAG report, which is yet to see the light of the day while he was dismissing the old CAG report which says that expenditure of Rs 40 crore did not figure in the expenditure record.
The former Chief Minister and Haridwar MP said the RTI reply has buttressed his party’s view of the State Government having misused the 2013 disaster relief funds. He said Rs 460 crore had been collected by way of disaster relief fund from all the sources. “But the State Government has shown only Rs 207 crore expenditure in the upcoming CAG report,” he said, reiterating their demand for both a CBI probe and a White Paper on the emotive matter.
“As far as Kumbha 2010 is concerned the people of Haridwar had elected me by two lakh votes during general election 2014. By electing me the people have outrightly rejected this allegation,” he said.
When the disaster occurred on June 15-16, 2013, he was the first person to visit Kedarnath and speak to the then Prime Minister, informing him of the grim ground situation at Kedarnath, he claimed.
“I had informed the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand too of the devastation wreaked by the deluge. later, I visited Kedarnath again after 83 days when the State Government was busy to reopen the shrine.
To keep the ground situation away from the public glare, the State Government had imposed a ban on entry to Kedarnath. They had started issuing selective passes for the visitors. When I insisted to go then the State Government machinery made it clear that the administration would not take my responsibility. However, braving all odds, I ascended Kedarnath to find that several people had died not because of the natural disaster but of the artificial disaster that resulted from the State Government’s blatant mismanagement,” the BJP leader said.
“Many more shocks awaited me. A relief commissioner was appointed, but as he was not familiar with the local accent it proved tough to communicate with the people who were in desperate need of relief,” he said.
Rubbishing the State Government’s claim of conjuring up excellent roads, Nishank said they were almost as bad as they had been during the disaster. He added former Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant had filed a petition before the High Court on July 10, 2014.
“The State Government crossed the limit when they chose to close the matter of some charlatans having managed to pocket Rs 25 crore by fraudulent means. When legal action and recovery of the money were warranted, the State Government decided to close the matter. Even stirs by local traders failed to make the Government change its stance,” the former Chief Minister said, demanding the names of illegal beneficiaries be disclosed.