Claims vindication of its charge as Rajasthan cancels allotment of 601 mines
New Delhi : The Congress has claimed vindication of its charge that the Rajasthan government had committed widespread irregularities and violated the rules in the allotment of 653, as on Saturday night the state government cancelled the allocation of 601 mines. “The point is why did the state government not cancel the remaining 52 mines as well. Why is the state government protecting the interests of some chosen few,” said party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala at a media briefing.
Claiming that the Vasundharaje Scindia government had been forced to take this step due to the pressure mounted by the Congress through its complaints with the CAG and the CVC, Surjewala that this belated action has nailed the lie of the BJP leaders who were claiming that nothing had been done in these allocations. ”But this is not the end of the matter. We stick to our demand that there should be a Supreme Court-monitored CBI inquiry into this case and all the culprits including the chief minister must be punished for their offences,” he added.
“This is a panic reaction of the Rajasthan government which had been earlier defending its actions when the issue was first raised by our party unit in the state, and this establishes its gross failure in allocating these mines within 24 hours,” said Sujrewala while pointing that the scam surfaced due to the efforts of the state unit chief Sachin Pilot and other state leaders.
The Congress spokesperson maintained that at a very conservative estimate there had been a loss of nearly Rs 45,000 crore to the state exchequer. ”Now that the scam has been clearly accepted by the state government, this is time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to live up to his promise of taking the strictest possible action against the corrupt,” said Surjewala adding that chief minister has to go after this episode as there can be no impartial probe into the case as long as she is in office.