Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju Tuesday rejected allegations of corruption levelled against him and said those ‘who plant such news’ will get beaten up with slippers if they come to Arunachal Pradesh, his home state.
“Who has planted this news? To help your own people is corruption? Those who are planting such news, if they come there (to Arunachal), they will be beaten with slippers. Is helping people corruption?” Rijiju told reporters when asked about his reaction to The Indian Express story. “This news is nothing but a mischief.”The Indian Express reported Tuesday that the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) named Rijiju, his cousin, a contractor in Arunachal Pradesh, Goboi Rijiju; and several top officials of the PSU in a 129-page report alleging corruption in the construction of two dams for 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project, one of the biggest hydro-electric projects in Arunachal Pradesh. The report by CVO Satish Verma, sent to the CBI, CVC and the Ministry of Power in July this year, alleges an “elaborate conspiracy” involving contractors, NEEPCO officials and the West Kameng district administration to defraud NEEPCO and the government of funds that “may extend up to Rs 450 crore.”
Though the CBI has made two ‘surprise checks’, no FIR has been registered yet so far.
Rijiju told The Indian Express: “I did write a letter to Ministry of Power to release funds to Patel Engineering (the contractor). But it was on the basis of a petition I had received from local contractors of the area. I had no idea it involved a scam. If it is a scam, it must be probed and those responsible must be punished. I am totally against corruption.”
The Congress, which released an audio clip purportedly linking Rijiju to alleged corruption in the hydro power project, demanded his resignation from the government.
“I pity Congress party … I feel that Congress should apologise to the nation for creating an issue which is non-existent. If local people have approached me to tell me that bills are pending and the bills are of small amount and what they are saying of Rs 150 crores, it is not like that,” Rijiju said.
“Small pending bills, pending since 2012, 2013, 2014 before we came to power, the contracts were awarded when we were not in the government, the payments were paid when we were not in the government. Only I was told that some 20-30 per cent of payments were remaining which NEEPCO is not releasing the money. So I wrote a letter to the Power Minister that just look into the matter, thats it,” the Minister said.
Verma’s report was sent to the CBI, CVC and the Ministry of Power in July this year. It alleges an “elaborate conspiracy” involving contractors, North East Power Corporation (NEPCO) officials and the West Kameng district administration to defraud NEEPCO and the government of funds that “may extend up to Rs 450 crore”.
West Kameng, the site of the project, falls in Arunachal West which is the parliamentary constituency of Rijiju.
The CBI has made two “surprise checks” but no FIR has been registered yet, reports said.
Chief Vigilance Officer Satish Verma, a Gujarat IPS officer, was pulled up by NEEPCO for “unauthorised absence,” and transferred to the CRPF in Tripura soon after his report.
Verma was also part of the three-member SIT set up to probe the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat in 2004 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister.
Verma had said Ishrat’s killing was a “premeditated murder”.
Surjewala said, “This is a very serious issue. The Prime Minister should speak out on this issue….”If PM has courage of conviction, he must either sack Kiren Rijiju or ask him to resign and conduct a fair and free probe so that truth comes out…Till then, Rijiju should be divested of his post.”
“The Prime in the run up to elections used to say that he will neither do or allow corruption to happen. But there have been a series of charges of corruption that came to light in the Modi government,” he said.
Payments were stopped after a letter by the Chief Vigilance Officer conducted a probe into the issue, he claimed.
Targeting the CBI, Surjewala alleged that the premier investigation agency has become a “puppet” in the hands of the Modi government and has not even registered an FIR in the matter despite the report by the vigilance officer.
Surjewala also played out a purported audio conversation between Goboi and Verma and the opposition party claimed it also had a mention of the goings on that led to pulling down of the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh.
He claimed Rijiju’s relative was clearly attempting to influence the CVO in the 28-minute tape and was using his Minister brother’s name to seek his help in getting the bills cleared and was also enticing him with a promotion.
“There seems to be a connection with making of these payments and were some of these payments used to buy and sell legislators is a matter that needs to be seriously probed,” he said.
Alleging that “inflated” bills were put up for bringing boulders for the dam construction, he said some of the huge boulders were shown to be carried on scooters, motorcyles and cars by a single driver at the same time.
[Source:-The Indian Express]
