The Hindu : PSUs issue: Cong. reiterates demand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 13, 2003

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National

PSUs issue: Cong. reiterates demand

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 12. The Congress today reiterated its demand for a parliamentary probe into the alleged misuse of Public Sector Undertakings by some Union Ministers, and said the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has sought to explain it away.

Referring to the issue and Mr. Vajpayee's statement that the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, P. Shankar, did not name any Minister during their discussion, the party said the Prime Minister did not deny about the complaint lodged by the PSUs.

``The least the Prime Minister could do was to tell the names of the PSUs which figure in it'', the Congress chief spokesperson, S. Jaipal Reddy, said here.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, demanded an immediate, independent parliamentary inquiry into the allegations and reveal the Ministers' identities.

Mr. Reddy said that at least the Prime Minister had admitted that the CVC had a meeting with him, and that any meeting between the PM and the CVC could not be routine. ``If the CVC had raised the matter with the Prime Minister, it should assume importance and the Congress is of the view that Parliamentary inquiry is in order''.

Meanwhile, responding to the former Bharatiya Janata Party chief, Bangaru Laxman's statement that he had been made a ``scapegoat'', the Congress demanded an explanation from the BJP and the Central Government.

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