Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Oct 29: MP, Shobha Karandlaje, said that she is prepared to politically counter the game plan of Congress and JD(S) to corner her politically by making allegation of her involvement with power purchase scandal. She also sought Central Bureau of Investigation probe into power purchases made by the state during the last two decades. She challenged the concerned to subject herself and Siddaramaiah to narco analysis test on the issue of corruption in the presence of media persons.
Speaking to media persons, Shobha mentioned that during the term of BJP government in the state, she had functioned as energy minister for 30 months. "I honestly tried to make Karnataka self reliant in power. I deployed capable officials to the department and worked like a model minister. Therefore, I have no hesitation or fear to face any kind of investigation," she said. She wanted to know whether not entering into long-term power purchase agreement for two decades was a crime.
"We had entered into power purchase agreement with Jindal company. But for two years, we did not get power. Therefore, it was decided to buy power from another company. It was not one-sided decision. It was backed by opinions and recommendations of all the officials. Just because election is approaching, these people are trying to make allegations against me like the Kannada adage in which a monkey eats food and transfers blame on goat by just wiping its hand on goat's mouth," she commented.
Shobha said she has details about which items were purchased by the Congress regime and the one before that and which were the goods that were allowed to to gather dust in godowns. She said she is ready to hit back politically at charges backed by political aims. "Just because we brought into open purchase of coal costing Rs 477 crore from a company that was blacklisted, a house committee has been formed, alleging that there was power purchase scandal. I demand that the opinions expressed by members of my party who are in the committee also should be included in the report," she added.
Shobha explained that she did not buy power from any company belonging to her relatives nor did she take files home with her. She also said she also had not locked any of the rooms. She questioned the government as to why they did not mention about the alleged scam during the four and half years they were in power and felt that this is being done just because election is round the corner.