Advani must answer publicly about corruption in CG: Cong

Raipur, October 20, 2011

The Congress has reiterated that senior BJP leader LK Advani’s Jan Chenta Yatra (anti-corruption yatra) would only be worthy when he would answer publicly about corruption prevailing in the state government. “We too will welcome Advani’s yatra if he would reply unbiasedly about the misdeeds of Raman Singh government,” said PCC president Nandkumar Patel and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey while talking to the media persons at the former’s residence on Thursday.

“Corruption is ubiquitous in the state from mining to agricultural land acquisition to river water sale to industrialists to MNREGA and PMGSY. The annual reports of Lok Ayog and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) too proved that corruption prevailed in the government machinery from top to bottom. Considering this, the government did not want to give more teeth to the Lok Ayog and has therefore kept 51 out of its total 59 approved posts vacant,” the duo charged.

Both Patel and Choubey informed that maximum number of irregularities in MNREGA and PMGSY surfaced in Sarguja division. “We have prepared a list of 19 such irregularities, one from each block and would soon submit it to the high command,” they said. “The party’s monitoring committee will submit memorandum to Advani pertaining to MNREGA and PMGSY scams in Sarguja as well as other parts of the state,” they added.

The frontal organisations of Congress would also hand over Advani a copy of charge sheet against the BJP government regarding scams worth over Rs 20000 crores in state. Notably, the party had submitted this charge sheet to President Pratibha Patil recently. Patel and Choubey further informed that Congress workers would wear black bands on one of their arms to protest against Advani yatra on October 22.