Attempts being made to malign party’s image: Sethi

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 28: BJP is working out options to take legal recourse against a daily news paper which it alleged tried to malign the image of Party and Deputy Chief Minister by publishing a report without ascertaining the facts.
Taking serious exception to the report published in yesterday’s edition of a local daily, BJP chief spokesperson, Sunil Sethi today said the report is not based on facts and it was published to malign the image of Party and Deputy Chief Minister deliberately. He said the Party is working out option to take up the matter with press Council of India (PCI) and also seek legal remedy against the people who have distorted the facts about the matter.
Mr Sethi, who was flanked by State spokespersons, Balbir Ram Rattan & Prof. Virender Gupta, strongly refuted the charges leveled against the Deputy Chief Minister that he has floated all the norms in allotting Rs 700 crore 100MW Solar Power Project to a Chennai based company without tendering. “The news item published in a daily newspaper is malicious, motivated and aimed at tarnishing the image of Deputy Chief Minister and the BJP”, he added.
He said the fact is that Rs 700 crore of 100 MW Solar Power Project for Chann Arrorian, Kathua Solar Power Plant and M/s India Energy Pvt. Ltd. Chennai, firm were approved in 2013 when National Conference and Congress were in power in the State and the Department of Power Development as well as Science & Technology were headed by the then Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah and another Minister of NC. The present Government has neither made any change in the location of the solar power project nor it has anything to do with M/s Then India Energy Pvt. Ltd. Chennai, he clarified.
Sethi said that in response to the letters written by Chief Minister’s Secretariat on July 31 and October 14 this year directing the Principal Secretary to Govt. Power Development Department for expediting the Power Purchase Agreement(PPA) with concerned firm so that the Project be started at an earliest as State was facing power crisis, the Officer on Special Duty to Deputy Chief Minister reminded the Principal Secretary, PDD to take immediate necessary steps regarding signing of PPA.
The BJP spokesperson further said that the newspaper did not try to ascertain the facts about the case and published a report which was not based on facts to malign the BJP and Deputy Chief Minister. This is very unfortunate and an irresponsible approach, he added.
The spokesperson also criticized Congress and National Conference for indulging in false propaganda against Deputy Chief Minister and BJP for the action which was taken during their own regime.
He said that both parties are in desperation after losing power and they are unnecessarily indulging in false propaganda against the coalition instead of performing the role of a responsible opposition.

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