Bhubaneswar, April 19: Congress today demanded the immediate resignation of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and three other ministers on “moral grounds” for failing to prevent alleged corruption in the implementation of rural job scheme MGNREGA.
Senior party leaders also demanded that the probe proposed by the CBI into the alleged irregularities must cover all the 30 districts in Orissa and not be confined to a few regions.
“Naveen Patnaik should step down as chief minister as he failed to discharge his duty in ensuring proper monitoring of implementation of the programme,” state Congress Working President Chandrasekhar Sahu told reporters here.
Though Patnaik was the chairman of the vigilance and monitoring committee for the scheme under MGNREGA, he failed to convene its meeting at least once a year to ensure its proper implementation, Sahu said.
“Therefore, Patnaik should quit on moral ground and pave way for a free and fair probe by the CBI,” Sahu as well as former Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang and former minister Sarat Rout said.
Similarly, Panchayati Raj Minister Prafulla Samal and his predecessors Raghunath Mohanty and Sanjeeb Sahu should also resign forthwith for “failing to check irregularities in MGNREGA implementation,” he said.
Quoting Samal that no corruption took place during his tenure, Sahu said that the panchayati raj minister indirectly admitted that corruption had taken place.
Moreover, instead of confining the probe to only seven or eight districts of KBK region, all the 30 districts of the state should be thoroughly investigated, Sahu and others said.
—–PTI—-