New Delhi, July 11
Even as the Congress today demanded a thorough probe into the US-64 fiasco of UTI saying that Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha could not “wash his hands off” the crisis, the BJP castigated the government for the imbroglio.

The BJP castigated the government for the Unit Trust of India imbroglio which has hit the small investors and called for appropriate safeguards for such investments.

Talking to newspersons, party President K. Jana Krishnamurthi emphasised the need to amend the old laws to protect the investors’ interest and to ensure that such debacles did not recur.

Meanwhile, reminding of the July 7 letter of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said that millions of senior citizens, pensioners, ex-servicemen and salaried persons had put their hard-earned savings into this scheme.

Mr Mukherjee said that the response of the Central government, especially the Finance Ministry was utterly confusing. “UTI was created by an Act of Parliament and the central government simply cannot wash off its hands of UTI,” he said.

Meanwhile, the three-day meeting of the BJP National Executive will now be held here from July 27 instead of Amritsar where it was scheduled from August 3.

Announcing the new dates and venue of the National Executive, Mr Krishnamurthi said it was decided at a meeting of the Central office-bearers with Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and three Central ministers held yesterday.