BJP alleges Rs 63,000 cr scam in NE, meets President

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Alleging a scam to the tune of Rs63,000 crore in developmental works carried out in theNorth-East, BJP today appealed to President Pratibha Patil todirect the authorities to carry out a detailed investigationinto the "loot".

BJP President Nitin Gadkari today led a delegation toRashtrapati Bhawan to hand over to Patil a memorandum on theissue as also a copy of party''s report on scams in the NorthEast.

The report claimed that if the level of corruption in theregion was quantified, it could be to the tune of Rs 63,000crore. Various scams in Assam, according to the report, havebeen quantified to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore.

Talking to media after submitting the memorandum, Gadkarisaid, "The scandals in the North East have broken allrecords...there is a scam in PDS due to which poor are notgetting their quota of rice which is sold in Bangladesh."

The report of the BJP team was based on evidencecollected using the Right to Information, he said.

BJP has demanded setting up of special courts to dealwith the issue of corruption in the region to ensure speedydisposal of cases.

The party also demanded a "coordinated investigation" byvarious investigation agencies, including the NIA and CBI.

"As the Constitutional Head, I would urge you to ask theconcerned authorities to have a detailed investigation...suchscandalous administration affects people''s faith in thedemocracy," the memorandum read.

The BJP leader alleged that when Congress leaders fromthe region realised that their counterparts in Delhi wereindulging in "loot", they "decided not to lag behind".

Gadkari had recently said that he would urge senior partyleader and PAC Chairman M M Joshi to take up the CAG report onNorth-East at the earliest.