New Delhi: Congress on Saturday demanded an independent investigation and was bound by a judge to sit into alleged financial irregularities in the work of fiber optic cable under the Central Bharatnet program marked by the Indian Comtrroller General Auditor (CAG).
Spokesman for the Pawan Khera Congress said in the preliminary report, CAG has shown that a large payment was carried out between July 2019 and December 2020 to Public Service Centers (CSC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
He claimed CAG further noted that “universal service obligations (USOF) cannot wear a penalty in CSC for delays in the completion of Bharatnet work”.
“With the absence of service and timeline level agreements that are prescribed for the recovery of errors and non-inclusion of clauses hold, there is no deterrent to CSC to ensure that there is no delay in improving the error in the phase of the Bharatnet-I,” said Khera quoted the CAG report.
“We demand an independent investigation, high level, time bound to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology,” he said.
There must be a judicial investigation by the judge sitting to ensure that it is an independent investigation because this involved thousands of crores taxpayers, he told reporters.
Khera also accused the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has provided projects to the private sector indirectly through CSC-SPV and its fully owned subsidiary of CSC Wi-Fi Choupal India Service Private Limited.
“Following the preliminary report of the Indian Supervisor and Auditor and these findings about the function of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, is the elimination of a minister from the Union Cabinet?” He asked.
“What is the action (that) that you will take to punish those who are guilty because the suspicion sucks funds in a tone of thousands of crores,” he further asked.
Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the CAG report had exposed the “big deviation”.
“Can the dot, the Indonesian government’s award contract without tender? Can the crores payment be made without a formal contract? Who is responsible for the failure of Bharatnet during a pandemic? Will it’s the answer min?” Surjewala asked Tweet.