Congress to lodge complaint before CEC on code violation: Swami

Bhubaneswar, Jan 7 (UNI) The Congress has decided to draw the notice of the Central Election Commission on gross violation of code of conduct by Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his council of Ministers for the Panchayat polls AICC general Secretary V Narayan said.

He told newsmen here that the party would formally lodge a complaint with the CEC against violation of code of conduct.

Expressing his doubt over the free and fair panchayat elections in the state, Mr Swami said the officers at the district-level were acting as ''an agent of the ruling BJD-BJP government and preventing the Opposition Congress from holding even elections meetings''.

The AICC General Secretary in-charge of Orissa, who recently toured Koraput,Malkangiri,Nawarangpur and Kalahandi said, ''The party will make the non-utilisation and misutilisation of central fund by the BJD-BJP government as a major issue in the Panchayat elections.'' He said only 31 per cent of the central fund has been so far utilised by the government adding that there has been serious lapses in the utilisation of the central funds.

Mr Swami said he had raised the issue in the Parliament and demanded a CBI inquiry into the misutilisation of the central funds by the state government.

The AICC General Secretary said the state government had not spent nearly Rs.1764 crores in the Panchayat Raj department, Rs.176 crores in Industry Department and Rs 168 crores in the Women and Child Welfare Department.

UNI