Cong for CBI probe into Chhattisgarh's scams

Raipur, Oct 17: Chhattisgarh's main opposition Congress today demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into alleged scams in centrally-sponsored schemes including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

''We will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,'' Congress General Secretary V Narayanasamy, in charge of party affairs in Chhattisgarh, told reporters today.

Alleging large-scale irregularities in NREGS, he said that it had come to Congress notice that job cards were not distributed to beneficiaries and machines were being used to undertake work through contractors instead of providing employment to the needy. Similar is the situation in other centrally-sponsored schemes such as the Sarvashiksha Abhiyan and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

The state Congress has decided to set up a legislators' committee to frame a charge sheet against the nearly four-year-old Raman Singh regime that, Mr Narayansamy said, failed to fulfill people's aspirations. ''The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government lacks vision for the state's development. It is just propagating centrally-sponsored schemes as its own programmes,'' he added.

Claiming that his party had already gathered evidence of corruption and siphoning off funds from the schemes, he said that the party was also considering filing complaints with the Lokayukt.

''We are contemplating moving the High Court over certain specific cases,'' Mr Narayansamy added.

The Congress would soon launch a programme in all districts to highlight ''omissions and commissions'' of the BJP regime and to gear up the party's rank and file for the assembly elections scheduled next year.

Responding to a query, the General Secretary said that his priority was to keep leaders, the rank and file united so that the party could take on the BJP at the hustings.

UNI