Senior Congressman and AICC member Yogendra Khanduri has described the ‘clean chit' given by the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Nitin Gadkari to the Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' Government in Uttarakhand as a shameful cover up to the shoddy deals going on in the State.
Instead of asking the Chief Minister to order a CBI or judicial probe into the alleged irregularities in the short-listing of a cartel to set up power projects, the multi-crore Rishikesh land scam and allegations of corruption in the constructions in Hardiwar during the recently concluded Mahakumbh, Mr. Gadkari preferred to give a clean chit to the Uttarakhand Government. This Mr. Khanduri said indicated that the BJP as well as the Nishank Government were afraid of facing the truth.
Recalling how the former Congress Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari had ordered CBI probes into the patwari and police sub-inspectors' recruitment scams the moment the Opposition raised those issues and action was taken against the culprits, Mr. Khanduri said such acts of transparency only helped restore confidence in the Government. He hoped Mr. Nishank would look back at the precedents laid down by Mr. Tiwari and pave way for transparency in Government dealings.