Uttar Pradesh Congress hit out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe pointed at huge irregularities in syphoning off employees provident fund (PF) money in the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) and the sought prosecution against three senior IAS officers in the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

“A scam of about Rs 2,600 crore took place right under the nose of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. First, the sleuths of Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and now the probe by the CBI has pointed at involvement of the government in the PF scam and has sought prosecution against three senior-most IAS officers of the corporation,” Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu said while accusing the BJP government of being directly involved in the this scam.

“While 17 officials were sent to jail, Yogi Adityanath has taken no action so far against Sanjay Agarwal and Alok Kumar, two former chairman of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited, besides MD Aparna U,” Lallu said, while alleging that even now the chief minister was trying to save these officials by not immediately sanctioning order to prosecute the corrupt officials who cheated government employees of their hard earned savings.

“This government neither talks about the interests of the employees nor ensured safety of their PF money,” Lallu charged.

Lallu alleged that despite such a big scam happening under the present government, Yogi Adityanath was still making tall claims of his government’s honesty and not committing any sins.

He said that Rs 2,631.20 crore of employees' Provident Fund (PF) of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited was wrongly invested in private entity DHFL.

“In a sting operation, it was revealed that DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Limited) has committed a scam of Rs 31,000 crore. According to the sting agency, this is the biggest scam in the non-banking financial company sector in Indian history and it made illegal donations to the BJP,” he said.

He said that even when the news of UPPCL's alleged investment of Rs 2,600 crore PF fund in DHFL under a controversial decision of UPPCL officials came to light, the Yogi government kept silent and tried to hush up the matter by sending some “small fish” to jail.

Lallu said that only when Congress general secretary and UP incharge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked the Yogi government that for whose benefit more than Rs 2,000 crore of employees' hard earned money was invested in the company in this way, the Yogi government woke up from its slumber but even then it was running away from its responsibility.

The UPCC president said that the entire matter was raised vigorously by the Congress party. He said the fight for the interests of the employees was fought on the streets, but the Yogi government and its energy minister only kept on tricking the employees.

“The issue of investing PF amount in DHFL is not only related to corruption but also to the security of the country,” Lallu said and added that the energy minister should explain why he went to Dubai in September-October 2017 and whom did he meet? The matter should be investigated as to what was the purpose of his going there and with whom did he meet there. The tour was made at the same time when DHFL money was going to Sunblink. State the objectives of this official visit of 10 days of the energy minister,” Lallu claimed that the Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma sent him a defamation notice just to silence him and go scot free in the scam which had now come out in the open.