JAMMU: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that “Roshni” scam had illuminated the Gupkar bungalows, but extinguished hope for the poor.
Speaking to media in the midst of the District Development Council election campaign in the suburban areas of Jammu district, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the “Roshni” scheme had been launched by the then Government with the apparently envisaged objective of raising an amount of Rs.25,000 crore for setting up Power projects in Jammu & Kashmir, which were said to provide electricity to each and every household including the houses of economically weaker sections of society. However, in the final bargain, what was witnessed was that all the loot out of the scam went into the construction of lavish bungalows at Gupkar Road and other VIP locations, whereas the poor neither got the electricity nor the house.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said, over the last one decade, BJP had been consistently demanding a thorough and impartial probe into the embezzlement that had taken place in the name of the “Roshni” scheme. But, he said, successive governments run by National Conference, Congress and PDP did not agree for the probe and instead sought to cover up the scam because the Ministres and the Chief Ministers of the then governments were themselves beneficiaries of the scam.
It is only now under the Modi government, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, when the investigative agencies were given a free hand to carry on their task that the entire scam has got unearthed and the skeletons are tumbling out. While the “Gupkar” governments robbed the land that should have legitimately gone to the poor, he said, it is under Prime Minister Narendra Modi that targets have been set to construct a house for each and every family under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Hitting out at the opposition parties for making the charge that their candidates are being prevented from carrying out the election campaign, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, if that is the case, the leaders of these political parties should approach the Election Commission instead of giving bytes on television, but they are not doing so because they know that their charge lacks evidence and conviction. He said, the SOPs and the restrictions thereof in view of COVID pandemic and security concerns in Kashmir valley are equally applicable to the BJP candidates as well and all the political parties are expected to follow the same.
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