Bhubaneswar: Armed with a recent CAG report hinting at massive irregularities in Ujjwala Yojana, senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader Digvijay Singh Friday demanded an independent enquiry into the alleged scam in the state.
Speaking to reporters here, the senior party leader lambasted the state government for the loopholes and nepotism shown to selected people in giving out benefits of subsidised LPG cylinders under the flagship scheme of the BJP government at the Centre.
He said, “A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has hinted at massive irregularities under Ujjwala Yojana. The auditor’s report has claimed even minors were issued connections and there have been many instances where a single person has been given upto 22 cylinders on a single day.”
He alleged that recent findings of CAG have found loopholes in implementation of Ujjwala in states like Odisha.
Singh said, “These findings hint at a scam where some people have been favoured. I want the state government to initiate an enquiry into the matter and bring the truth behind such accusations. An independent enquiry should be started into this by the state.”
The leader also fired salvos at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He said that there is open friendship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Patnaik and between the BJP and the BJD. “They are hand in gloves. In most of the key Bills, the BJD MPs in Parliament go with the BJP and please them. They are working together in the state.
They show one face inside the Parliament and the other in the state.”
The leader also accused the CM of being an ‘autocrat’. He said, “There is a nice man but not democratic. I often meet many BJD MPs in the Parliament and in New Delhi. Many of them have told me about the CM. Tell me how many BJD workers and their own MPs and MLAs have access to him. There is only one bureaucrat who controls the whole CMO, a fact told by the BJD MPs to me (sic).”