Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June, 1: Calling for a judicial probe into the massive breach in the Lower Jehlum Hydel Project (LJHP) canal, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) today said it resulted from Government’s policy of cronyism in allotment of development works.
In a statement issued here today, senior PDP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussein Baig said there was an urgent need to probe the breach in LJHP canal that has been recently ‘repaired’ reportedly at a cost of Rs 27 crore. The probe should be conducted by a sitting judge in view of the substantial loss to the State involved in it, he said. He said reports suggested that the breach that has resulted in the closure of LJHP was costing the State an additional Rs 44 lakh everyday on account of production loss.
Baig said the repair was actually launched only to benefit a particular person in true tradition of the National Conference which treats the State as a personal property. He said the allotment of repair work was made in violation of norms and the only purpose of it was to divert public money into private pockets. “The need for repairs in fact was a ‘manufactured’ one and highly questionable” he said.
The former Deputy Chief Minister who represents Baramulla constituency in the Assembly where the scam has taken place, said the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must come out with the facts of the case as he owed an explanation for the brazen loot of exchequer. He said as Chief Minister and as the Minister of Power Omar must explain this major setback to power sector which even otherwise has witnessed a sharp down turn ever since he took over the Government.
Baig said there had always been a suspicion that the contract for repair to the LJHP canal was awarded to benefit the NC district president and its candidate in the last Assembly Elections. Government’s silence on the issue would only confirm this suspicion, he said.
“Though our party had from the very beginning raised voice against the scandalous allotment and substandard nature of work done, but the Government in its arrogance never felt obliged to respond, much less stop this loot”, he added.
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