With the 12- member strong Opposition bench seeking to test the nerves of the treasury bench by harking back to a scam that allegedly had happened in 2010, the State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant asked them to refrain from wasting the time of the House by raising such things which have nothing to do with the present House. Notably, the Congress MlA Karan Mahra demanded a debate on an issue which had allegedly happened in 2010 when BJP had been in power in its earlier stint. Pant said that it was inexplicable why the Opposition was raking up the matter now. “Congress was in power for the period of 2012-17. They did nothing then,” he said. The matter pertained to the scam involving Tarai Beej Vikas Nigam which functions under the agriculture ministry. Significantly, the present chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had been the agriculture minister in 2010 when the scam had allegedly happened.
The Opposition MlAs said that it being a huge scam, the present government- flaunting its zero tolerance for corruption- should show the spunk to order a probe into it. They also mentioned that the previous Congress-led government had constituted Bhati commission to conduct inquiry into the scam. They further said that with a huge sum having been embezzled, the nigam is not in a position to clear the salary of its employees.