PM's aide denies wrongdoing; BJP to corner govt

CNN-IBN | 30-Apr 07:35 AM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advisor TKA Nair has refuted all charges of wrongdoing after reports in the Hindu newspaper claimed that his niece and friend were allotted plots by the BEML Employees' Co-operative Society flouting all norms.

The Hindu newspaper had claimed that the allotments in South Bangalore were made out of turn and at throwaway prices in 2008.

The Congress for its part has remained tightlipped on the allegations. Party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, "I don't have the details. I will talk after receiving the details."

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party said that the matter had set bad precedent. It, however, said that the matter must be closed as the flats issued were returned.

"The family of Mr Nair has returned the flat issued to them so this matter should end there. It has set up bad precedent and should have not happened," said Shahid Siddiqui.

The controversy has, however, given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) more ammunition to target the government.

The party is slated to raise the issue, among others, in Parliament on Monday, specifically questioning reports that the land allotment was linked to the BEML-Tatra truck deal.

Meanwhile, besides refuting the allegations by the newspaper, Nair also denied stakeholder and former BEML employee K S Periyaswamy's charge that the cooperative society was forced by BEML chief VRS Natrajan to make the allotments to ensure the silence of PMO on the Tatra Scam.

Defending himself in the controversy, Nair said, "To the best of my knowledge, no irregularity or illegality was involved in the allotments. I have requested the PMO to obtain all the relevant facts of this matter through the Department of Defence Production."

Earlier, Periyaswamy had alleged that Nair was a corrupt official who worked in "tandem with many political leaders".

He said, "TKA Nair is one of the most corrupt officers in the country. He works in tandem with many political leaders and he is working in the PMO. I wrote to the President and the PM saying that Natarajan is involved in many scams and the nexus between Natarajan and Nair... they have worked on nearly 6000 files. For allotment of BEML sites, they should work in BEML for 5 years, be a resident of Karnataka for 10 years. So the land was allotted to complete strangers like Nair's people. Even if they have withdrawn their allotments, they are still guilty. CBI is made to sleep over all these charges because of Nair's influence. AK Antony is a helpless person. There are 40 other MoD officials who have plots thanks to Natarajan, this is a big scam. They are all selling the nation."

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