Govt trying to divert public attention: SP chief

LUCKNOW : Hitting out at the BJP government over the alleged UPPCL PF scam, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said the government, neck-deep in corruption, was looking for excuses to divert public attention and engaging in vendetta politics by levelling baseless accusations (at the previous Samajwadi Party regime).

“The UP power minister, who (allegedly) took Rs 20 crore donation from the DHFL, would (he) please tell what are his relations with the company?” Akhilesh Yadav asked in a press statement issued on Sunday evening.

The BJP government had been trumpeting itself as a clean government, but now the layers of corruption in the government were unravelling., he said. “The BJP government will have to tell as to what were its intentions behind investing the employees’ hard-earned money in the company that was already defaulter?” he said.

Akhilesh said: “For two-and-ahalf years, this government smelt scams in the previous government’s projects. They looked into the nook and cranny of every project and failed to find any discrepancy.

“So now, they are resorting to mudslinging to try to prevent its dark realities from getting exposed.”

The SP chief said: “It is questionable why the government kept the scam under wraps for two and-a-half years. Had the media not spotted it, it would have stayed hidden. Even now it doesn’t appear that the government would let the scam be investigated. If it said that it will get it probed by CBI, then why they are bringing the EOW into it?”