NH-74 scam: Congress wants Uttarakhand CM TS Rawat to stick to his promise of CBI probe

Upping its ante against the ruling BJP in multi-crore NH-74 scam, the state Congress demanded CBI probe in the scam saying chief minister TS Rawat should stick to ‘his promise of launching a CBI probe

Upping its ante against the ruling BJP in multi-crore NH-74 scam, the state Congress demanded CBI probe in the scam saying chief minister TS Rawat should stick to ‘his promise of launching a CBI probe’.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister TS Rawat going inside the assembly. (HT File Photo)

The scam worth about ₹500 crore recently hogged the news again after the state government suspended two IAS officers for their alleged involvement in the scam on Tuesday.

“CM Rawat should launch the CBI probe which he had promised soon after being sworn in as the chief minister in 2017. However, he later backtracked on it after receiving a letter from union transport minister Nitin Gadkari asking him not to go ahead with the move,” said state Congress unit president, Pritam Singh. He added, “After the recent suspension of two IAS officers, it also became clear that officials at higher level were involved in the scam. SIT has done a very good job, but if the probe is now handed over to CBI, we believe involvement of more senior officials would come up.”

State units vice president, Suryakant Dhasmana, too, while demanding the CBI probe said, “The investigation by the central agency has become more important than ever after the National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) has reportedly said that they don’t want a probe by the SIT. After this the CBI probe has become the need of the hour. As it’s a central agency, the NHAI should have no problem.” BJP state chief Ajay Bhatt could not be contacted despite several attempts.