Rs 35,000 Crore Scam Under Watch Of UP Minister Mahendra Singh, Alleges AAP Lawmaker Sanjay Singh

Lucknow, August 8 (TNA) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Sunday dropped a bombshell when he accused UP Jal Shakti minister Mahendra Singh of corruption and provided in detail on large amount of money was missed in the ambitious central scheme of Jal Jeewan Mission.

Addressing reporters in the state capital, Singh, who in the past too has been exposing graft in various sectors, said that a company-Rashmi Metallics, has been granted contracts worth crores for pipes used in laying of water pipelines, despite the fact that the company has been black listed by various state governments in the country for substandard pipe supply.

He claimed and produced documentary evidence which showed that Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and many other state governments had thrown out of bounds all tenders for the company which has been at the receiving end of the largesse of the Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh, considered one of the closest aides of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

He also claimed that based on many complaints, when minister Suresh Khanna got a probe conducted similar sub-standard reports had come from investigation in Jhansi. He added that despite this a green signal was given to Rashmi Metallics and contract awarded to them.

Singh claimed to be in possession of details irregularities in the Jal Jeevan Mission in Ayodhya, Agra, Kanpur. He also alleged that work was being given elsewhere despite the fact that Jal Nigam would do it at a much lesser and approved rates. The lawmaker also claimed that there was a gross violation of guidelines set by the government of India as well.

Pointing out that the union government had fixed 0.4% as the Third Party Inspection charges on test total cost of the project, Singh informed that while the rate was 0.15% in Chennai and stuck to 0.4% in most states and union territories, while in UP this was at a staggering 1.33% which means that in third party inspection alone, UP government had spent Rs 1500 crore plus.

He said further on this meant that the daily supervision costs which should be more were surpassed by the third party inspection. Something, which he pointed out, smirked of huge corruption. In the Rs 1.2 lakh crore project hence, there is a scam of not less than Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 crore.

Demanding that the state government immediately act against Mahendra Singh, the AAP law maker also demanded that a probe be ordered under monitoring of a sitting High Court Judge and that the case be handed over to the CBI. AAP has also demanded action against officials Anurag Srivastava, Alok Kumar Sinha and have warned that of this does not happen, statewide protests will begin from August 16.