Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’ on Sunday demanded that chief minister Yogi Adityanath must immediately dismiss energy minister Shrikant Sharma after irregularities in investment of the UP Power Corporation Ltd employee’s provident fund came to light.
The Congress leader also said the state government
must file a case against Sharma and the power corporation’s chairman and managing director.
“They have arrested two minor officers. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had been harping on “zero-tolerance against corruption”. The scam involves Rs 2600 crore provident fund of the power corporation employees. If there is even a streak of political morality left, the minister should be sacked and case be filed against him and the chairman and the MD,” said Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’ at a press conference in Lucknow on Sunday evening.
He said if the scam in UP Power Corporation Ltd began in the previous Samajwadi Party government, then the BJP government took it forward.
“The foundation of the scam was laid in the previous SP government, and the BJP government gave it shape and kept it under wraps for 21 months. On July 10, a complaint about it surfaced. By August, it was clear that there was a scam, yet the government kept mum and did not act. It was only after a tweet about scam by the Congress national general secretary Priyanka ji (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra), that the government woke up from its slumber,” he said.
The UPCC president further said, “The company, DHFL, in which the PF money was invested, had given Rs 20 crore donation to the BJP. The company people used to meet the power minister at his Lucknow office and home and the Mathura home. And the visitors’ register and visitors’ room at the Shakti Bhawan (the seat of the UP power department) should be sealed. A lot would surface when those places and documents are scanned”.
{{/usCountry}}The UPCC president further said, “The company, DHFL, in which the PF money was invested, had given Rs 20 crore donation to the BJP. The company people used to meet the power minister at his Lucknow office and home and the Mathura home. And the visitors’ register and visitors’ room at the Shakti Bhawan (the seat of the UP power department) should be sealed. A lot would surface when those places and documents are scanned”.
{{/usCountry}}“The money was the biggest retirement benefit of power employees. The Congress is with the employees and will struggle for them from streets to the legislature. We will not sit quiet.”
“There is no need to wait for CBI probe. Already the entire scam is fully exposed, that Rs 2600 crore of PF of employees was invested in a sick company,” he said.