The Congress has demanded the resignation of Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari’s private secretary Vaibhav Dange and sought a clarification from the Minister in an alleged case of conflict of interest.
The Hindu on Friday reported how Mr. Dange , who owns 50 per cent of the shares of Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) got financial contributions from the Road Transport and Highways Ministry for organising seminars and conferences.
Mr. Gadkari and Union Minister for Commerce Suresh Prabhu are part of the National Executive Committee of the IFGE.
At a press conference, Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh pointed out that even on Friday, the Ministry had organised a conference in Pune on “ethanol as transport fuel”, of which IFGE is also a participant.
“In 2014, IFGE started with a capital of ₹1 lakh only and zero cash. It has now built up a corpus of ₹ 1.33 crore and the company also has cash worth ₹1.54 crore,” Mr. Ramesh said showing the company’s balance sheet.
Calling it a Narendra Modi style start-up, Mr. Ramesh said that it was another example of conflict of interest in the government. “We saw it with Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, then again in case of Shaurya Doval, son of Ajit Doval case, and now this. It is a clear case of violation of code of conduct,” Mr Ramesh said.
When investigation began, Mr. Dange resigned from the post of director. “How can Nitin Gadkari permit his own Ministry and PSUs to participate and financially contribute to a company that is part owned by his own private secretary,” he said.
The office of IFGE was working out of a room owned by one of the directors of Purti, a firm owned by Mr Gadkari’s son Nikhil Gadkari.
"We demand the prompt resignation of Mr. Dange and a clarification from Mr. Gadkari. We find it difficult to believe that he was completely unaware that his own private secretary was running a firm like this," Mr. Ramesh said.
Mr. Dange has worked with Mr. Gadkari since his days as BJP president. He was working with ABVP, Maharashtra, and later worked in the RSS-affiliated Centre for Bharatiya Marketing and Development.
