Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday dubbed as completely bogus Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's charge that his letter seeking her concurrence for a CBI probe into alleged embezzlement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) funds was politically motivated.
Reacting to Ms. Mayawati's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Ramesh denied her charge of taking up with her the fraud committed in seven districts — siphoning off of MGNREGS funds — as an attempt at scoring political points.
“There is absolutely no politics in it and the issue I raised were based on overwhelming evidence,” Mr. Ramesh told journalists.
He said his letter was based not on political reports or that of NGOs but on those presented by National-Level Monitors and State Quality Monitor who had pointed out instances of deliberate misuse of funds in seven districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Ramesh acknowledged receiving written complaints from Congress MPs but said he had not taken cognisance of these allegations as otherwise the Chief Minister would have accused “me of doing politics.”
Asked whether he still stood by his allegation that those embezzling funds enjoyed political patronage, Mr. Ramesh said he could infer no differently in the face of inaction against them despite so many reports.
As for Ms. Mayawati's objection to his drawing a parallel between MGNREGS embezzlement and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam, which had nothing to do with his Ministry, Mr. Ramesh justified his action saying that he was part of the government.
On Ms. Mayawati being non-committal on a CBI probe, Mr. Ramesh said he could order an inquiry only with the concurrence of the Chief Minister and that there was no way he could force it on the State in matters of the MGNREGS.
CAG audit
Mr. Ramesh had, however, ordered a CAG performance audit of the MGNREGS in 12 States including Uttar Pradesh. The other States are Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Stressing that he had never hesitated to take action even against Congress-led governments, he denied the allegation of indulging in politics. The CAG probe included five States ruled either by the Congress or its allies, he said.
