Pump scam: City artist helped Cong to nail BJP

AURANGABAD: When Congressmen were taking the Bharatiya Janata Party to task in Parliament over the petrol pump scam earlier this month, they were powered by documents supplied by a local youth.Chetan Kamble, an unemployed city artist, played a key role in confirming that the BJP had favoured its cadre in allotting petrol pumps.Chetan supplied Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal with the list of beneficiaries of the BJP's largesse in Marathwada.He also tendered an affidavit supporting his claim.His experience of attending dealer selection interviews along with his father, who had made 10 futile attempts at getting a petrol pump, had taught him that to get a petrol pump one needs to do more than just fulfilling the criteria — a strong political connection.Despite this, Chetan sought an HPC outlet in his wife Parveen's name from the Aurangabad dealer selection board (DSB).However, the selection board did not even call his wife for an interview. When the DSB released its list, Chetan was shocked to find that most of the allottees were either BJP, RSS members or Sena men.He met petroleum minister Ram Naik in May 2001, but was allegedly told that no petrol pump would be allotted without the recommendation of BJP leaders or the Shiv Sena MP from Aurangabad.Meanwhile, he published a list of some beneficiaries in a daily. He staged a rasta roko in front of the Aurangabad airstrip during Naik's visit to city in January. On April 10, 2002, he wrote to central vigilance commissioner N. Vittal seeking a probe into the allotment of petrol pumps, but nothing happened.Chetan found a voice only in the form of Sibal who, after reading his interviews in a daily, invited him to New Delhi earlier this month.