India News | Congress Stages Protest in Jammu, Demands CBI Probe into Jal Jeevan Mission 'scam'

Jammu, Sep 22 (PTI) The Congress staged a protest here on Friday demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into an alleged scam of Rs 14,000 crore in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in Jammu and Kashmir.

Raising slogans against the BJP, the protesters tried to march from the Congress headquarters at Residency Road to the Raj Bhavan but were stopped by police.

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The protest was led by Jammu and Kashmir Congress unit president Vikar Rasool Wani.

Wani announced that the party's youth wing would start a signature campaign from Saturday to know whether the people want assembly elections or continuation of the Lt Governor rule.

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"Our signature campaign will try to find out the opinion of the public," Wani said in an apparent reference to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha's reported statement that a survey revealed 80 per cent population of Jammu and Kashmir do not want elections as they are satisfied with his administration.

The Congress leader claimed that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were fed up with the BJP and wanted early restoration of a democratically elected government.

He said they are on the streets due to "wrong policies" of the BJP whose leaders are not listening to the people.

Wani said senior IAS officer Ashok Kumar Parmar who headed the Jal Shakti department claimed a scam worth Rs 14,000 crore in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the Union territory.

"There must be a CBI probe into the allegations to unravel the truth," he said.

He said the protest demonstration was also to highlight the public anger against the installation of smart meters, toll tax, property tax, price rise and unemployment.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)