STOP MISUSE OF GOVT MONEY, GEHLOT WRITES TO CHIEF SECY

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot urged Rajasthan chief Secretary DB Gupta on Tuesday to stop misuse of government money and machinery for political programmes.

“I would like to draw your attention towards the misuse of government money and machinery by the BJP government to fulfil its political interests,” Gehlot said in a letter to Gupta.

In the name of public dialogue with beneficiaries, the Prime Minister’s programme was first organised in the presence of the governor, he said. “The event was held as a government programme. In this programme, the government machinery was misused. The way government orders were issued for the programme raised suspicion.”

Gehlot alleged that the expenditure for the CM’s Gaurav Yatra was borne from the government treasury and “for the same many orders were issued from various levels for tents, mikes, publicity etc.”

Sanitation workers were called to Jaipur in the name of a dialogue. “Similarly, newly recruited teachers were called to Jaipur on Teachers’ Day. Now, police constables are being called in the name of promoting them to head constables; this should be immediately stopped.”

He said the Bhamashah Digital Family scheme was started for the beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act; money was provided for mobile phones from the treasury. “For all this there was no budget announcement, nor is there any budgetary provision; orders were released in a haste. To gain political mileage, the government money and machinery are misused for these programmes,” Gehlot alleged.

The former CM said despite the high court’s order, no directives have been issued to stop government expenditure. Gupta could not be contacted for comments.

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