Rajya Sabha member and Aam Aadmi Party incharge of UP, Sanjay Singh, on Tuesday said the Jal Jeevan Mission scam was even bigger than the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam which once took place in UP during Bahujan Samaj Party regime and shook the then government.
He went on to say that after six months, the new government in UP would send the corrupt ministers and officers to jail.
Sanjay Singh taunted the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying people shunned the BJP during its Ashirvad Yatra (a march to seek blessings of the public). He appealed to the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and other parties to raise the issue in the UP Assembly session.
Speaking to reporters, Singh said the BJP government was in trouble after the Jal Jeevan Mission scam was exposed.
He apprehended that like the NRHM scam, the Jal Jeevan Mission scam may lead to a series of murders of officials linked with the project.
“There is apprehension that a series of murders may start in UP like the one which took place after the NRHM scam was exposed,” he said.
“I have raised the issue during the last week. After the scam came to light, the BJP government and its ministers are in trouble. Water Resource Minister Mahendra Singh, principal secretary of the department and the embattled company sent me notices. Not only this, an MLA lodged a FIR of defamation against me. But these will not cow me. I want to say that I will keep exposing the scam whether I may be sent to jail, face several cases of crime,” he said.
He said people were dying after consuming dirty water in UP and there was a scam in the scheme to provide water to houses. He said the AAP would start a campaign against this water scam in the UP.
He demanded that the scam should be probed by a SIT monitored by Supreme Court or High Court or by CBI. “We will not rest until the scamsters are sent to jail,” he said.
He said the AAP had complained to the Lokayukta also and the party was planning to move the court in this connection.
He criticised the BJP government, saying scams in purchase of ventilators, oximetres and other medical equipment also took place earlier and the government had yet not initiated any action.
Speaking about the embattled company in the Jal Jeevan Mission scam, he said the CBI lodged a case against the said company on February 10, 2012 for a scam in railways.
“The same company was named in a case on January 18, 2013 for tax evasion (Rs 30 crore), in a case by DRI on November 27, 2019 for tax evasion (Rs 4.5 crore),” he claimed.
Meanwhile, Digvijay Nishad, son of five-time MLA from Bikapur and former minister Sitaram Nishad, joined AAP in a function here on Tuesday.