NEW DELHI, Aug 11:
To counter the Opposition’s offensive in the Lok Sabha, the ruling BJP today opted to target Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over various issues.
Amid massive sloganeering by the Opposition in the Well during Question Hour, Kirit Somaiya (BJP) put up a supplementary to a question related to food parks and spoke on controversy related to a food park project in Amethi, the constituency of Mr Gandhi.
Giving a detailed account of the allotment of a food park to a company in Raebareli and its cancellation and then within few months re-allotment of the same to Amethi, Mr Somaiya said this was done under the influence of a ‘powerful MP’ of Amethi.
He wanted the Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s confirmation on whether the project in Amethi was allotted to Shaktimaan Foods of the Aditya Birla group which was insisting on provision of cheap gas supply for its proposed captive power plant and was denied by the then Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily.
Ms Badal confirmed the sequence of the events in the process as asked by the BJP Member and also held that the local MP and Congress vice-president Mr Gandhi’s influence worked in this matter. Ms Badal said, “The project allotted to the company in Raebareli was cancelled on the grounds that the proposer did not have land for the project despite the fact that the company was having the land and and that is record in the inter-ministerial meet.
”Then in a brief period, the project was re-allotted to Amethi for which tendering process in the first phase remained futile as proposals of all companies were rejected and then tenders were invited again.”.
Then the project was finally given to Shaktiman Foods that went slow over the project installation process seeking cheap gas supply for their captive power plant after almost four years and on refusal for the gas supply to it on subsidised rates, the company backed from the project.
Despite, the company’s unwillingness for putting up food park, the local MP had laid foundation stone for the project in 2013 six months ahead of the general polls, the Minister held amid slogans-shame shame from the Treasury Benches.
“They acted against the interest and rights of farmers (by land acquisition for the project) and in turn, the people have rejected them in polls, Ms Kaur said amid thumping of tables from the treasury benches.
Since pandemonium prevailed in the House and most of the Congress Members were in the Well, no one neither protested nor defended their vice-president.
Another instance of attack on Mr Gandhi appeared when Pinaki Mishra (BJD) made allegations of discrimination to states ruled by non Congress states during the ten-year UPA regime and curtailment of allocations to states for environment related projects.
Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar endorsed the point made by Mr Mishra saying that during the previous regime, the projects related to environment projection and afforestation suffered in a big way and allocations as huge as Rs 35,000 crore for afforestation remained unused.
Mr Javadekar also invoked controversial former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s resignation from the Congress and her allegations against Mr Gandhi for allegedly interfering in issues related to her Ministry and stalling the process of project clearance.
He said, “The former Minister even alleged of private tax for clearance of the projects and we are looking into the issues raised by her.” (UNI)
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