New Delhi, Congress has alleged that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s private secretary Vaibhav Dange has floated a company that has been receiving funds from the government and is a case of conflict of interest.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that Dange along with one Motiram Kisanrao Patil set up a company — Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) — in October 2014 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh only. The firm allegedly received funds to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore since it started operations. According to the Congress spokesperson, the money came from the ministries controlled by Gadkari.
Road, transport, highway and shipping ministries comes under Gadkari. Ramesh alleged that IFGE organises conclaves and programmes with PSUs and ministries under the control of Gadkari and receives financial contributions.
It also receives contributions from private persons or corporate entities attending or sponsoring these events and who deal directly with the ministries controlled by Gadkari, he added.
Citing information from Registrar of Companies, Ramesh said that IFGE, which started on October 9, 2014 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh and zero cash has built up a corpus of Rs 1.33 crore (73 lakh in 2014-15 and 60 lakh in 2015-16). The firm also has cash and cash equivalent of Rs 1.54 crore.
That IFGE’s office is at Rohit House on Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi as per its corporate filing, the Congress MP said. The office is owned by another member of the National Executive of IFGE, Ravi Boratkar, who is also a director of ‘Purti Power and Sugar Ltd’ owned by Gadkari’s family, he added. Interestingly, IFGE also claims that it is part of ‘Related Association of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India’, including depicting the pictures of a dozen Union Ministers and Speaker, Lok Sabha on its website. It definitely fails to point out that it is a company which is 50 per cent owned by Dange, Ramesh noted.
Mr. Dange has worked with Mr. Gadkari since his days as BJP president. He was working with ABVP, Maharashtra, and later worked in the RSS-affiliated Centre for Bharatiya Marketing and Development.However, BJP has dismissed the allegations against Dange.
