Nar Bahadur Bhandari labels inquiry commission as desperate

Gangtok, Jan 13 :PTI: With the Sikkim governmententrusting the inquiry into the alleged disproportionateassets of Chief Minister Pawan Chamling and others to thePatra Commission, SPCC president Nar Bahadur Bhandari todaysaid it was a deperate attempt by the ruling Sikkim DemocraticFront.

"SDF has shown a level of frustration by announcing anindependent inquiry commission. But the attempt by rulingparty is useless as CBI is knocking on Chamling�s door," saidBhandari who has filed an FIR with the CBI in New Delhialleging that Chamling and his present and past ministers hadassets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

He slammed the recent statement by SDF Lok Sabha MP, PD Rai that the CBI was impartial which necessiated the stategovernment to set up the R K Patra commission headed by theformer chief justice of the Sikkim High Court.

"SPCC is not going to tolerate such irresponsiblecomments from the people''s representative. CBI is a nationalagency. The state government should let the CBI investigate,"Bhandari said.

He asked what the Patra commission would investigate,since the FIR was filed before the CBI against Chamling andtwelve others.

Bhandari also expressed frustration with the Centre.

"Centre is protecting the unconstitutional and corruptgovernment in Sikkim by delaying a CBI inquiry."

The Sikkim Assembly on January 11 had adopted aunanimous resolution for a commission of inquiry to go intothe allegations against Chamling and the others after acabinet decision on January seven.