Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS) Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to order a CBI probe into alleged misappropriation of funds under the rural job guarantee scheme in some districts. Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid said his colleague had only “proposed” a federal probe to the state government.

Ramesh wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to order the Central Bureau of Investigaton (CBI) probe into the alleged corrupt practices in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the districts of Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonebhadra, Sant Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur and Kushinagar.

“The Uttar Pradesh government must pave the way for the CBI probe if it has nothing to hide,” Ramesh is said to have written in his letter.

He also noted in his letter that the annual budget of MNREGS in Uttar Pradesh had increased to over Rs.5,000 crore and the performance of scheme in the state was poor in comparison to other states.

He also warned the state government that the funding for the scheme may have to be stopped, but said his ministry would not resort to any such decision, though it had the powers to do so, as it would lead to unnecessarily punishing the poor for a crime they had not committed.

When Khurshid’s views were sought on Ramesh’s letter, he said the rural development minister had only talked about the options that were available to it.

“He has only proposed. The state government has to order and recommend a CBI probe,” Khurshid told reporters here.

The law and justice minister said the irregularities could be brought out through a CBI probe and the guilty punished if the state government recommended the investigation by the central agency.

He said the central government was still awaiting a response on Ramesh’s letter from the state government.