NEW DELHI, Dec 13 - Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju�s role came under cloud following news reports of allegation of corruption against him in a scam involving power giant NEEPCO. The AICC demanded his sacking alleging his �involvement� in the �Rs 450-crore Arunachal power scam� asserting that the Prime Minister�s �tall claims� of bringing transparency have �fallen flat.�
On Tuesday, AICC spokesman Randeep Surjewala released an audio tape of a purported conversation of Rijiju�s cousin, a contractor in a 600-MW power project, and Rijiju�s letter recommending that held-up payments be released.
�The role of Kiren Rijiju in this issue is under cloud. Kiren Rijiju has no right to stay in office. He should either be dismissed by the Prime Minister or asked to resign till an independent probe is complete,� he said addressing a press conference.
Surjewala also trained his guns on the Prime Minister alleging that his �tall claims� of bringing transparency have �fallen flat� as had happened with several other scandals in the past, including Vyapam, Lalitgate and the Vijay Mallya issues.
�Narendra Modi�s claim of transparency and honesty is now under question. People of India are looking at what action he takes on this issue,� he said.
While Rijiju denied the allegation, according to sources, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday summoned him and enquired about the issue. The story was broken by a national daily today.
Payments were stopped after a letter by the chief vigilance officer (CVO) of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), who conducted a probe into the issue, the Congress spokesperson said and alleged that there is a scam to the extent of Rs 450 crore in the form of false and inflated transportation bills by Goboi Rijiju, who is said to be a relative of Kiren Rijiju.
Surjewala also played out a purported audio conversation between Goboi and the NEEPCO CVO Satish Verma and the Opposition party claimed it also had a mention of the goings on that led to pulling down of the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh.
He claimed Rijiju�s brother was clearly attempting to influence the CVO in the 28-minute tape and was using his minister brother�s name to seek his help in getting the bills cleared and was also enticing him with a promotion.
�There seems to be a connection with making of these payments, and whether some of these payments were used to buy and sell legislators (in Arunachal Pradesh) is a matter that needs to be seriously probed,� he said.
Alleging that �inflated� bills were put up for bringing boulders for the dam construction, he said some of the huge boulders were shown to be carried on scooters, motorcycles and cars by a single driver at the same time.
Rijiju, in turn, accused the main Opposition party of �cheap� politics and claimed all the payments now under scanner in the project were made during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime.
Shortly after the Congress press conference, Rijiju took to Twitter and demanded apology from the Opposition party. �Now Congress must apologise to the Nation. All contract works and payments were made during Congress regime. I just forwarded a memorandum,� he said.
�Really cheap! This is the copy of representation I received and forwarding letter to Power Minister. Is it a corruption helping poor Tribals?� he said in another tweet, with which he attached the letter received from the contractors and the one he wrote to the Power Ministry.
The newspaper claimed that he had written letters to clear payments of the contractors in the construction of two dams for the 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project in Arunachal Pradesh.