‘Raje wanted to buy one more copter’

Sharpening its attack on chief minister Vasundhara Raje, the Congress Friday alleged that she would have bought one more Agusta helicopter if not defeated in the Assembly elections in 2008.

PCC president Sachin Pilot said that Ms Raje who was interested in buying AW139, a 17-seater helicopter from the Agusta-Westland. “She had made up her mind for the helicopter which was estimated to be Rs 59 crore by paying a premium of Rs 7 crore,” he alleged. She would have bought it despite irregularities that occurred in the purchase of Agusta A109E power helicopter but the defeat in Assembly election didn’t allow her wish to be fulfilled, he added. Demanding a CBI inquiry into this matter, Mr Pilot said that the state BJP has been repeatedly denying any wrongdoing then what is the problem in expanding the ambit of the CBI inquiry.

“Comptroller & Auditor-General (CAG) is government of India’s audit agency. It has found irregularities in the purchase of helicopter by the BJP government during Ms Raje’s previous tenure that cost the exchequer Rs 1.14 crore. Besides, the copter proved to be a white elephant as it could not be used for the purpose it was bought,” Mr Pilot said.

Replying to the state BJP president’s claim that the public accounts committee (PAC) of the state Assembly had found no wrongdoing on the part of the chief minister, Mr Rameshwar Dudi, the leader of Opposition said that the PAC cannot investigate ministers and chief minister. “The PAC’s purview is limited to officials. Ministers and CM are out of its jurisdiction,” he said.

Interestingly, even though the PAC recommended that loss of money to the exchequer should be collected from guilty officials, the state government had replied that it was not possibly.