New Delhi: Former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna on Saturday said that the Centre should initiate an inquiry into the scam which plagued the state following the 2013 floods, calling for appropriate action to be taken.
“If somebody sought any information with regard to the prices on which goods were purchased during the calamity of 2013, then certainly the government should inquire into the matter and take appropriate action,” Bahuguna told ANI.
“But it is quite natural that when there is a crisis of such a magnitude, then prices do go up. The inquiry should be whether goods were available at cheaper prices and still bought at higher prices,” he added.
Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad earlier said that the Centre would initiate an inquiry after getting all details.
“We shall find out details and then investigation shall be thought about,” Prasad said while addressing a press conference.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand’s Information Commissioner Anil Kumar Sharma said that the scam looks serious and added that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry has been recommended to Chief Minister
Harish Rawat.
According to reports, during the 2013 disaster in Uttarakhand, when lakhs of people went hungry, officials of the state government were busy utilizing the Rs. 7000 per day allowance given to them for supervising relief efforts.
When the state was struggling for two meals in a day, the officials had a normal day diet of mutton chops, chicken, milk and cottage cheese.
An RTI reply has revealed a scam in the allowance claims made by the officials involved in the rescue and relief works.
