Power minister dismisses Goa Forward allegations in LED bulb scam Jyotirmay scheme

The Goa Forward party has filed a complaint with ACB accusing BJP workers and state electricity department officials of being involved in a scam during distribution of LED bulbs under the 'Jyotirmay scheme'.

The state power minister has refuted the charges. There is no record maintained of the number of LED bulbs distributed as the department officials claim they are out of stock while lakhs of consumers are yet to collect their share of bulbs, Goa Forward spokesman Durgadas Kamat said in the complaint filed on 1 September.

The Goa government had earlier modified the Centre's Jyotirmay scheme by providing three bulbs free of cost to consumers.

"The money for the Jyotirmay scheme, through which LED bulbs were being distributed, was spent out of the public exchequer. It is a scheme of the government and not of BJP party.

"However, the same has been portrayed as if it has been a scheme of the BJP. We do not know how the bulbs were handed over to BJP workers and leaders, who in turn distributed them to consumers," Kamat said.

"There is no record of how many bulbs were handed over to BJP politicians and how many of these politicians handed over double or triple quota to a single BJP worker (pack of three bulbs)," the complaint stated.

"I will not be surprised to find that excessive quantities of bulbs have been ordered by the government (on paper) and payments made in full, whereas only few bulbs have been actually received thereby earning huge undue profits for the (bulb) company and sharing of the same with concerned patron politicians," it said.

The Goa Forward party has urged the ACB to conduct a thorough investigation in the matter and make the electricity department officials accountable for depriving the people of their rightful benefits.

"This cannot happen without the connivance of those involved in the distribution of the bulbs and officials of the electricity department. This clearly shows that bulbs have been misappropriated by BJP workers and the electricity officials. There is a clear violation of rules of business by the electricity department officials," Kamat said.

However, Power Minister Milind Naik, when contacted, ruled out any scam in the distribution of LED bulbs.

"This is a government-run scheme. The consumers were distributed LED bulbs to cut down on electricity consumption of the state," he said.

--PTI