By B S Reporter
Firebrand septuagenarian BJP leader Kirori Lal Meena is on a crusade against the alleged corruption of Gehlot government. He has been accusing the state government of high level corruption worth in thousands of crores in various departments like PHED, Mines and DoIT. Besides the respective ministers, Meena has also accused officials of these departments including senior bureaucrats. He has inflicted maximum damage to Additional Chief Secretary Subodh Agarwal who is heading PHED and was also at the helm in mines department when the alleged scam had happened. Last month, mines department was given to Veenu Gupta replacing Agarwal.
Meena, however, has categorically given clean chit to Akhil Arora who is heading the DoIT department. Meena said that Arora may have signed the papers but he has no role in the scams. This is despite the fact that Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) had arrested an officer after recovering cash of Rs 2.33 crore and a gold brick in premises of DoIT.
On the other hand, Meena has vociferously hurled corruption charges on Subodh Agarwal. The timing could not have been more inappropriate for Agarwal, who is eying the top post of bureaucracy as the current chief secretary Usha Sharma is retiring this month.
“Subodh Agarwal is second most senior officer after Veenu Gupta in the race. He is one of the most efficient officers in the brigade and enjoys Gehlot's confidence. Prima facie the corruption charges look frivolous. But it has damaged the reputation of Subodh Agarwal. And this factor may affect his chances,” said a retired chief secretary who has a close eye in the power corridor.
Meena has alleged scam of Rs 20,000 crore in PHED department and Rs 66,000 crore in mines department. The PHED department minister Mahesh Joshi has categorically denied any such corruption in his department. He said that the department has cancelled tender of Rs 20,000 crore.
“When there was not tender, how can there be corruption. So far we have completed works worth Rs 16,500 crore while giving water connections to 31.27 lakh homes under Jal Jivan Mission. All the allegations are baseless and I will file a defamation case against Meena,” he said.
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