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In a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the eve of Independence Day, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh Sunday said “the Prime Minister will unleash his torrent of lies from the ramparts of the Red Fort for one last time, taking off from his tsunami of lies to the nation in the Parliament last week,” reported ANI.
The Congress General Secretary said, “Will he have the courage to question his own government and his ministers on their corruption and incompetence?”
Accusing Modi Government of corruption and incompetence, the Congress General Secretary said, “Even a defanged Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has been able to expose the sheer corruption and incompetence of Modi Government.” Demanding answer from the prime minister Jairam Ramesh said Chuppi Todiye, Pradhan Mantri-ji!
Highlighting the findings of the CAG, Jairam Ramesh in a letter said the CAG has flagged an overall cost overrun of more than 100% in the much-hyped Bharatmala Pariyojana. This project was approved and monitored by none other than the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) that is chaired by the Prime Minister himself.
Ramesh said, “The sanctioned cost of the 26,316 km of highways that have been awarded was ₹8,46,588 crore, as against the CCEA-approved length of 34.800 km at a cost of ₹5,35.000 crore. This means that these projects were awarded at a cost of ₹32.17 crore/km, more than double the cost of Rs15-37 crore/km approved by the CCEA. Despite multiple cost overruns, only 13,499 Km of national highways have been completed till 31 March 2023, less than 30% of the CCEA-approved length.”
The Congress General Secretary further said, “The CAG has also raised concerns about the inflated project cost of the Dwarka Expressway, which went up 14 times from the sanctioned ₹18 crore/km to ₹250 crore/km.”
The CAG has also highlighted irregularities in the Bharatmala bidding process-successful bidders not fulfilling tender condition, bidders being selected on the basis of falsified documents, work awarded without approved detailed project reports or faulty DPRs and the diversion of funds to the tone of Rs3,598.52 crore from escrow accounts.
The Congress General Secretary asked, “Will the Prime Minister take responsibility, for this incompetence and corruption in the Bharatmala projects under his direct watch?
The Congress General Secretary said, “CAG has uncovered violation of toll rules, with NHAI wrongly collecting ₹132.05 crore from commuters in just 5 randomly audited tall plazas. At the same time, NHAI lost revenue of ₹133-36 crore due to lack of provision for revenue sharing in concession agreements in two sections of NH projects. If this audit were extrapolates to the whole country, the overall loss to the exchequer and the commuters walit amount to lakhs of crores.” Jairam Ramesh asked that “Will the Prime Minister take action against the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways?”
Jairam Ramesh further said,” the CAG has reported payouts to the dead in the Prime Minister’s favourite Ayushman Bharat Scheme. 88,760 patients had died during treatment and yet, 2.14,923 claims were shown as paid in respect of fresh treatments given to these dead ‘patients. Other than that, 7.5 lakh recipients were linked to a single mobile number and 4,761 registrations made against seven Aadhar numbers. In total there are more than 1.24 crore fake beneficiaries linked to only 1,86,855 mobile numbers. Will the Prime Minister order an investigation on who were the real beneficiaries of this massive Digital India scam in Ayushman Bharat?
Jairam Ramesh said “The CAG has raised similar questions on irregularities in the Ayodhya Development Project and the diversion of old page pension funds under National Social Assistance Programme for publicity of the Modi government’s schemes instead.”
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Updated: 14 Aug 2023, 09:14 PM IST
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