Gadkari, Prabhu violated CoC for union ministers : Cong

New Delhi, Nov 24: Charging Union Ministers -- Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu -- of being a part of the national executive committee of a company floated by Mr Gadkari's private secretary Vaibhav Dange, the Congress on Friday said both the ministers violated the code of conduct for Union Ministers.

Talking to the reporters here, AICC spokesperson Jairam Ramesh -- alleging that the Indian Federation of Green Energy, a firm floated by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s Private Secretary Vaibhav Dange, had raised funds from government departments and state-owned entities -- said it was a matter pertaining to a conflict of interest of Mr Nitin Gadkari.Posing several questions to Mr Gadkari and Mr Prabhu, Mr Jairam Ramesh said, 'isn't conflict of interest of Mr Nitin Gadkari writ large?
Have not Mr Nitin Gadkari as also Mr Suresh Prabhu violated the code of conduct as Union Ministers," he asked.He also questioned as to how Mr Gadkari permitted his own ministry and PSUs to participate and financially contribute to a company which is partly owned by his own personal secretary.Mr Ramesh also charged Mr Dange of violating the Central Civil Service (conducting) Rules, which prohibit a public servant from accepting contributions and associating with raising of any funds or collection or cash.Giving details in this regard, Mr Ramesh said,'on October 9, 2014, Mr Vaibhav Dange, along with Mr Motiram Kisanrao Patil, floated a company, 'Indian Federation of Green energy' with a paid capital of Rs 1 lakh.IFGE organises conclaves and programmes with PSUs and ministers under the control of Mr Gadkari and receives financial contribution. It also receives contributions from private contributions from private persons or corporate entities attending or sponsoring therse events and who deal directly with the ministries controlled by Mr Gadkari. This becomes even more serious as Mr Vaibhav Dange deals directly with all the ministries and the PSUS' related issues as also private entities in his capacity as personal secretary to the Union Cabinet Minister.'He pointed out that IFGE, which started with a capital of RS 1 lakh only and zero cash as also zero corpus, has a built up corpus of RS 1.33 crore. 
'This company also has cash or cash equivalent of RS 1.54 crore,' Mr Ramesh said. UNI