Even as an hour-long meeting on Saturday between Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav indicated that the phase of Centre-State confrontation might just be over, the Central Minister has urged Mr. Yadav to recommend a CBI probe into the irregularities in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) during 2007-2009 when Mayawati was in power.
Mr. Yadav assured the Union Minister that he would look into the relevant papers and get back to the Rural Development Ministry within a fortnight.
Mr. Ramesh, who was on a two-day visit to the State met the Chief Minister at his 5, Kalidas Marg official residence. Matters related to the rural development schemes of the Centre were discussed. The Union Minister later left for Patna. Mr. Ramesh said he wanted to meet Mr. Yadav and discuss the issues related to the implementation of rural development schemes. “There is no politics, no discrimination, only cooperation with the State.”
He regretted that in the last 10 months there had been no contact with his Ministry and the State government, “either with the [former] Chief Minister, or with the officials.”
The demand for a CBI inquiry into the implementation of the MGNREGS in Gonda, Balrampur, Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Sant Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur and Kushinagar districts was made by Mr. Ramesh in his letter to the former Chief Minister dated October 24, 2011. He wrote another letter to Ms. Mayawati on November 14, 2011, which was in reply to the then State Rural Development Minister, Daddu Prasad's letter to his Ministry, dated, October 28, 2011 and Ms. Mayawati's letter to the Prime Minister, dated October 28, 2011.
In his meeting with Mr. Yadav, the Union Minister sought his permission for a probe by the Central investigating agency into the irregularities in the implementation of the rural job scheme in the particular districts. The Chief Minister was told that recommending a CBI probe would send a strong signal to the people that the State government was not willing to compromise on corruption.
“The Chief Minister assured me that he would look into the papers and inform the Rural Development Ministry in one or two weeks,” Mr. Ramesh told journalists at the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters after his meeting with Mr. Yadav.
Stating that audit of the MGNREGS by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) was under way in 12 States with the report expected to be out in seven to eight months, Mr. Ramesh said the Chief Minister should not wait for the CAG report. He regretted that Uttar Pradesh was the only State, where irregularities had been detected.
Among the other issues which came up for discussion was the low participation of women in the rural job scheme.
“In U.P. the participation of women was 22 per cent, compared to 85 per cent in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and 70 per cent in Rajasthan. It was even below the national average of 50 per cent,” Mr. Ramesh said, and added, it was agreed to review the situation.
Mr. Ramesh readily agreed to the Chief Minister's suggestion of implementing the job scheme in flood-prone areas of Terai and Eastern U.P.
