Power Ministry says cleared bills before Kiren Rijiju's letter

NEW DELHI: The Congress has demanded the resignation of MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju over his alleged misuse of office by helping his cousin Goboi Rijiju win a sub-contract in an power project.

At a news conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Congress released an audio link to allege involvement of the minister’s brother with the contract and also copy of a letter Rijiju had written to Power Minister Piyush Goyal, as ‘evidences’.

However, the Power Ministry termed the allegations as baseless. In a statement issued in the evening the ministry said that payments to a contractor of a power plant in Arunachal Pradesh were released even before the minister forwarded a representation for the same.

The ministry said that vigilance officer SC Verma, who alleged corruption in the construction of two dams for Neepco’s 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project, had authorised release of substantial payments to the contractor.

Rijiju in November 2015 had only forwarded a representation of local inhabitants of his constituency, complaining about the stoppage of payments to sub-contractor of Patel Engineering for transportation of boulders/sand.

“At no point did Shri Rijiju recommend that payment be released but only requested that ‘kindly get this petition considered in your ministry sympathetically on priority’,” the ministry statement said furnishing a copy of the letter.

“No instructions or directions by the government were given to Neepco at any time for making any payments. Thus, the allegations made are baseless, false and seem to be motivated by the chargesheet issued against an officer for violation of CVC instructions and service rules,” the ministry said.