PF scam: Priyanka seeks more info, UP Cong chief puts questions to minister

The Congress on Monday accused the Yogi Adityanath government of misleading the people on the power employees PF issue and alleged that funds were diverted to the

The Congress on Monday accused the Yogi Adityanath government of misleading the people on the power employees PF issue and alleged that funds were diverted to the unsecured private firm, DHFCL, for the first time on March 24, 2017.

HT Image

For her part, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra presided over a meeting of senior party leaders in New Delhi on Monday and sought more information from them on the issue, a party insider said.

Besides giving a final shape to the agitation programme to be undertaken from November 5 to 15 to against ‘economic slowdown’, she asked partymen to fight for the cause of the power sector employees.

Uttar Pradesh Congress general secretary (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar Lallu, who attended the meeting in New Delhi, later circulated questions that he said minister for energy Shrikant Sharma should answer if he was clean on the issue.

Lallu, in his first poser to Sharma, said the minister should give specific dates when the funds were transferred to the DHFCL from March 2017 to December 31, 2018. He said the state government should make all the correspondence with DHFCL public and clarify why the PF funds of power employees were given to a private company. He also asked why the EOW had not seized the visitors’ book.

Earlier, the Congress held a demonstration to protest the power employees provident fund scam at Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at the GPO Park here on Monday. The party workers burnt the effigy of the energy minister in front of Shakti Bhawan here and demanded that he be dismissed from the ministry and a case be registered against him.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee secretary and the party’s Lucknow incharge Ramesh Shukla led the demonstration, accusing the Yogi Adityanath government of complicity in the scam. “The scam involving funds of power sector employees is not possible without complicity of higher ups of the Yogi government. Minister for energy Shrikant Sharma should be removed from ministry and a case be registered against him,” said Shukla.

Shukla said Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had raised the issue. He said the Congress was committed for the cause of power sector employees and was ready to fight on the issue.