Nitin Gadkari vs Trivendra Singh Rawat: Round-I goes to Uttarakhand CM

DEHRADUN: The CBI has decided to investigate alleged irregularities in the procurement of land for National Highway 74 (NH-74) in Uttarakhand, nearly three months after the state government sought as much.

Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari was reportedly not in favour of a probe by the CBI, and had made it apparent in a letter to CM Trivendra Singh Rawat in April.

“Right from the very first day , we had been very clear in our stand and we remained unmoved. The state government is focused on weeding out any kind of wrongdoing from the system in line with our policy on zero tolerance for corruption,“ Rawat said as he announced the CBI's decision, “The CBI inquiry will take things forward.“

The demand for a CBI probe in the case -which pertains to alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land in Udham Singh Nagar district to widen the 300km HaridwarBareilly national highway -was made by Rawat on March 25, soon after taking over as chief minister. Last month, a letter dated April 5 had sur faced, written by Gadkari and addressed to the CM, in which the minister warned the state government that a CBI probe into the alleged scam “would have an adverse impact on the morale of National Highways Authority of India ( NHAI) officers“, and that his ministry would have to “re-examine the usefulness of taking up more projects in the state“.

Rawat didn't budge, and his insistence on a CBI probe was seen by observers as a sign that the CM had convinced senior party colleagues, and possibly Gadkari, that any backtracking from the demand would go against his government's much-talked-about stance of “zero tolerance on graft“. A preliminary probe by a former Kumaon commissioner had pegged the scam at Rs 240 crore.