Congress MP from Unnao Annu Tandon came in the firing line of activist Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly having `125 crores in a Swiss bank account. However, Ms Tandon dismissed the allegations as baseless and malicious.
Ms Tandon had surprised a number of leaders within the Congress when she was picked to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 from Unnao in UP. She is considered close to the Rahul Gandhi camp. She is also a member of the core group of Mr Gandhi. Her campaign in the 2009 elections was seen high on glamour quotient, as along with Salman Khan, a number of Bollywood actors had canvassed for her. She is widow of Sandeep Tandon, a former Indian Revenue Service officer who had raided alleged front companies of Reliance during his tenure. Mr Kejriwal claimed that there was also an account in the name of the late Sandeep Tandon, also of `125 crores.
However, Ms Tandon in her denial stated: “I can only say that the allegations that I am hearing from the media are completely baseless. They are malicious. I completely deny any such rubbish.”
Ms Tandon had also earlier been managing MoTech Software Pvt. Ltd. (a Reliance Group company), which has also been alleged by Mr Kejriwal for having parked `2,100 crores in the Swiss account. Her husband is said to have been a top liaison officer for Reliance Industries, after he quit the ED.
Ms Tandon said: “I feel it’s just a pure waste of time and energy. I have better things in this world.”
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Cash transfer rollout from jan. 1
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Nov. 9
The Centre on Friday unveiled the roadmap for direct cash transfer to beneficiaries for various Centrally-sponsored schemes. The Prime Minister’s Office in its tweet stated that the scheme for direct cash transfer for public distribution scheme (PDS) to beneficiaries would be rolled out from January 1 next year. The PMO, while giving the roadmap, stated that 51 districts across the country would be covered in first phase of the rollout. Another 18 states would be covered by April 1, 2013, while by April 1, 2014 a total of 16 states would be covered under the direct cash transfer scheme.
The government in a statement said that the list of Centrally-sponsored schemes along with roadmaps for the cash transfer rollout and timelines would be sent to the Planning Commission by November 20. Further, the government said that UIDAI would set up a dedicated cell of technical experts to facilitate Aadhaar enabled cash transfer and help the concerned ministries.
The decision has been taken in a bid to plug in the loopholes within the PDS system.