SHIVPAL JUSTIFIES CBI PROBE INTO MINING DEALS
Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday supported the CBI probe into the alleged mining scam during the Samajwadi Party and BSP regimes but termed it a ‘delayed move’ by the BJP government. “Anomalies did take place from 2007 onwards in the mining department but political motives would now be attached because of the timing of the CBI probe. The BJP should have taken this decision much earlier,” said Shivpal.
LUCKNOW: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday supported the CBI probe into the alleged mining scam during the Samajwadi Party and BSP regimes but termed it a ‘delayed move’ by the BJP government.
“Anomalies did take place from 2007 onwards in the mining department but political motives would now be attached because of the timing of the CBI probe. The BJP should have taken this decision much earlier,” said the estranged uncle of SP president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
“There were no complaints and allegations in the mining department from 2004 till 2007 when I headed it,” the PSP chief asserted.
His comments assume significance in the wake of CBI’s statement that all officials, including the then mining minister, may be quizzed in connection with the alleged scam.
The PSP chief termed the Centre’s decision providing 10 per cent reservation to the economically-backward section in the general category as a political sop which like so many others would go down as yet another unfulfilled promise of the Modi government. He said the reservation move was triggered by the BJP’s defeat in the recently concluded assembly elections in three states-- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
He claimed credit for raising the reservation demand for the
› Anomalies did take place from 2007 onwards in the mining department but political motives would now be attached because of the timing of the CBI probe. The BJP should have taken this decision much earlier SHIVPAL YADAV, PSP chief
poor upper caste at a recent rally of the party in Lucknow but said the present quota move may not get implemented as the Supreme Court had struck it down in the past. On the question of the alliance, Yadav said all options were open.
“PSP has emerged as a formidable political force. And one thing which is clear is that no party would be able to defeat the BJP in UP without our support,” he said adding that his party was ready for a tie-up with any party if it got a respectable number of seats. Yadav, however, evaded a direct reply when asked if this included also a possible alliance with Samajwadi Party and whether he was willing to bury the hatchet and meet his estranged nephew Akhilesh. Former minister Shivkumar Beria and several office-bearers of the Samajwadi Party joined PSP on the occasion.