Alleging a huge scam in the Puducherry government’s scheme for providing free laptops for school students, former Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Saturday said the Congress would petition the President to initiate a CBI probe into the deal.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Narayanasamy alleged corruption to the tune of Rs. 27 crore in awarding the contract to one of the two bidders through the Government e Marketplace (GeM) overruling the Chief Secretary’s recommendation for a global tender.
Mr. Narayanasamy said the Congress would approach the President seeking a CBI inquiry into the laptop deal, which in the first place should not have been routed through GeM.
The senior Congress leader accused Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan of misusing government apparatus to organise events to publicise Central Government schemes and gain political mileage for the BJP.
Accepting Ms. Soundararajan’s challenge to the Opposition to name any Central Government scheme that was not being implemented in the Union Territory, Mr. Narayanasamy said he could put together an entire list, starting with the poor implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. He wanted to know if patients enrolled in the scheme could avail of tertiary care in hospitals in Chennai or even JIPMER.
He also sought to know how many of the 3.57 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme had been given identity badges or how many houses had been constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. While there were many schemes that were proclaimed about but were yet to reach a vast number of beneficiaries, the Lt. Governor was engaged in a publicity campaign to garner political capital for the BJP ahead of the Parliamentary elections, he said.
Mr. Narayanasamy also charged that Chief Minister N. Rangasamy was using the same play book by making blatantly false claims about development and welfare schemes and trying to pull wool over the eyes of the public.
Reading out from the AINRC’s poll manifesto, Mr. Narayanasamy sought to know which of the tall campaign promises, be it the promise of Statehood opening of ration shops, attracting industries or creation of jobs, had been fulfilled as the government was entering its third year.
The Congress leader denounced Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi’s recent remarks implying that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose played a more vital role than Mahatma Gandhi in the struggle for gaining Independence.
He sought to know whether such a remark stemmed from Mr. Ravi’s skewed understanding of history or represented a deliberate attempt to propagate a twisted narrative about the Father of the Nation, whose sacrifices for the freedom struggle were globally acknowledged.
The Congress leader condemned the various attempts orchestrated by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to disrupt Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that recently passed through that State. Such anti-democratic attempts only showed the BJP’s intolerance for the popular appeal generated by the yatra, Mr. Narayanasamy said.
