IT raids Rajasthan home minister's premises over mid-day meal scam

Jaipur, Sept 8: The Income Tax department on Wednesday carried out raids at various premises of Rajasthan's home and higher education minister Rajendra Yadav in connection to the mid-day meal scam. This comes after Income Tax raids at the think tank, Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in Delhi.

 

 

The I-T department also raided a bag-manufacturing factory that is run by Yadav's kin in the minister's constituency- Kotputli. It was raided owing to increasing irregularities related to mid-day meals, which benefit lakhs of students in the government-run schools in the state.

 

 

More than three dozen officers of the IT department and police personnel reached the factory in over half a dozen vehicles to carry out searches, reports suggest. "The IT department officials came to my premises at 8 am today. They also raided my locations in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Gurugram, where my children and family do business. The search operation is underway, everything will be clear soon," Rajendra Yadav told ANI.

 

The minister's flour mill and residence in Kichha, the Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand were also raided. Rajendra Singh Yadav is a member of the Rajasthan legislative assembly and is an incumbent minister in the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state.

 

 

The Income Tax Department on 7 September, Wednesday launched pan-India raids on political parties. Reports suggest that the raids have been going on in several cities in more than half a dozen states. These political parties were allegedly involved in serious financial impropriety by receiving donations without due statutory compliances.

 

According to Income Tax Department, 199 Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) claimed ₹445 crore exemption in 2018-19. In 2019-20, 219 such parties claimed ₹608 crore exemption from Income Tax. Election Commission of India in May this year took action against such political parties who had claimed IT exemption without complying with statutory requirements and deleted 87 political parties from its list for bogus donation and tax fraud and violating norms.