Orissa governor accepts resignation of minister

Bhubaneswar, Feb 6 (PTI) Orissa Governor M C Bhandaretoday accepted the resignation of Women and Child DevelopmentMinister Pramila Mallick, a day after she put in her papersin the wake of allegation of a Rs 700-crore scam in purchaseof dal for mid-day meal scheme and Supplementary NutritionProgramme.

"The resignation of Mallick, which was forwarded byChief Minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday, has been accepted bythe Governor," Raj Bhavan sources here said.

Mallick had tendered her resignation yesterday onmoral grounds following scathing attack by the oppositionparties after gross irregularities were detected by theanti-corruption Vigilance department in the purchase of dalfor various schemes, for which WCD was the nodal department.

The sustandard dal was supplied to about 9.5 millionchildren and pregnant women under mid-day-meal (MDM) andsupplementary nutrition programe (SNP) respectively.

While Mallick stepped down, the state governmentinitiated action against three IAS officers for allegedinvolvement in the dal scam.

The actions came two days after the stateanti-corruption vigilance department submitted its prelimnaryreport on the Rs 700 crore dal scam.