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Gadkari's firm flouted norms: CAG

Exchequer lost around Rs 12.77 cr, says report
Last Updated 01 May 2015, 20:21 IST

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has run into a fresh controversy with a latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) observing that rules were flouted to sanction a loan of over Rs 48 crore to his company Purti Sakhar Karkhana Limited (PSKL) for a renewable energy project in 2002.

Moreover, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) had sanctioned the loan for implementation of renewable energy project but Gadkari’s company deviated from it and utilised the money in a 100 per cent coal-based project.

As over the years, when the loan amount swelled up to about Rs 84.12 crore with accumulation of interest and other charges, PSKL returned only Rs 71.35 crore as one-time settlement (OTS) in December 2009, two years after the loan was declared as non-performing assets (NPA) by the IREDA. It resulted in a loss of Rs 12.77 crore to the exchequer.

Interestingly, according to the CAG report tabled in Parliament on Thursday, Gadkari’s firm continued drawing interest subsidy till 2009, even as the loan given to it became NPA in March 2007 itself as per banking fiscal norms. The firm commissioned the project in March 2007, but it was supposed to be done by February 2004.  

The Congress demanded a time-bound judicial probe into the entire episode and sought Gadkari to step down as the Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping.

“Every rule in the rule book was violated. It’s a very serious matter. The Congress demands a time-bound independent probe into the matter, preferably a judicial inquiry. The minister should step down when an enquiry is set up,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.

Gadkari, who had in an earlier case named his driver as a Director in Purti Group of companies, to escape responsibility, has been “indicted” by the CAG in its report, Singhvi said.

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(Published 01 May 2015, 20:21 IST)

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