PF INVESTMENT SCAM: MINISTER BLAMES AKHILESH GOVT
Energy minister also takes a swipe at Priyanka, rakes up corruption allegations during Mayawati regime
LUCKNOW: Giving a political twist to the investment of Uttar Pradesh power sector employees’ Rs 2,600 crore provident fund money in a non-listed financial institution, energy minister Shrikant Sharma on Sunday sought to put the then
CM Akhilesh Yadav in the dock. Sharma alleged that not only was the script of the scam written during Yadav’s regime, but the beginning was also made under him. The minister also attacked Congress general secretary Priyanka
Gandhi Vadra for her criticism and raked up the alleged corruption during BSP chief Mayawati’s regime. Sharma said the decision to invest the money in unscheduled financial institutions was taken on April, 21, 2014.
LUCKNOW : Giving a political twist to the investment of Uttar Pradesh power sector employees’ Rs 2,600 crore provident fund money in a non-listed financial institution, energy minister Shrikant Sharma on Sunday sought to put the then chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in the dock.
Sharma alleged that not only was the script of the scam written during Yadav’s regime, but the beginning was also made under him.
The minister also attacked Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for her criticism and raked up the alleged corruption during Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati’s regime as the CM.
Speaking at a press conference at the Lok Bhawan here on Sunday, Sharma said the decision to invest the Power Sector Employees Trust’s money in unscheduled financial institutions was taken by the Board of Trustees on April, 21, 2014. Till October 2014, he said the employees’ general provident fund and contributory provident fund used to be invested by the trust in nationalised banks only as the fixed deposits.
He said the then Trust secretary PK Gupta and the then director, finance, Sudhansu Dwivedi started the investment under the changed norms and invested in the PNB Housing on December 17, 2016 after the approval by AP Mishra, who was then heading UPPCL as the managing director.
Giving further details, he said Gupta and Dwivedi invested the employees’ fund in the Deewan Housing Corporation Ltd (DHFCL), a Mumbai-based controversial and unsecured firm on March 17, 2017, without taking approval from the UPPCL chairman and the MD.
“It is clear from all this that the ground for investment of the employees’ fund in unscheduled financial institutions was taken during the Samajwadi Party government headed by Akhilesh Yadav and the first investment in the DHFCL was also made during his regime only and two days before Yogi Adityanath took over from him on March 19,” he alleged.
The minister challenged Akhilesh Yadav to address the media and reply to all these questions. Yadav, he said, was himself on the agencies’ radar for the mining scam.
“Fourteen of the 22 mining contracts that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is looking into pertain to the SP rule only,” he pointed out. He also asked Akhilesh Yadav to explain why he put a lid on the Mayawati government’s alleged statue scam after he came to power in 2012.
Assailing Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra whose tweet on November 1 raised questions about investment of power employees’ fund, the minister said she should tell people how much commission the Gandhi family got through the scams for which P Chidambram was in Tihar jail.
“She also owes an explanation on charges of land- grabbing by her husband in various states,” Sharma said.
To a question, if the current UPPCL management was not guilty of supervisory lapses since the investment in the shady company continued for all the two years and half under the current government, the minister said the CBI would now investigate the issue and whosoever was found guilty of loot of the employees’ hard-earned money would be severely punished.
“Our government has a policy of zero tolerance on corruption and I took no time in writing to the CM suggesting a CBI probe and asking the UPPCL to lodge an FIR against the two prima facie guilty officers as soon as I realized the gravity of the issue,” the minister said.
He said the UPPCL chairman had got an unnamed complaint on July 10, 2019 after which he asked the UPPCL director, finance, to probe the matter. Based on the findings, the then Trust secretary PK Gupta was suspended two weeks ago.
› Fourteen of the 22 mining contracts that the Enforcement Directorate is looking into pertain to the Samajwadi Party rule only. SHRIKANT SHARMA, energy minister