Allahabad: Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for "large-scale irregularities" in implementation of the MNREGA scheme and failure to order an investigation despite repeated communications to Chief Minister Mayawati.
"Thousands of crores of rupees have been given to Uttar Pradesh by the UPA government at the Centre in the past five years for MNREGA. There have been reports of large-scale irregularities in implementation following which I wrote to the Chief Minister at least five or six times. However, all this has proved to be of no avail," he told reporters in Allahabad.
Ramesh was in Allahabad to release the party's "Nav Uttar Pradesh 2020" document which he described as an elucidation of "party general secretary Rahul Gandhi's vision for the state which has been lagging behind in terms of development over the past couple of decades when Congress has been out of power".
He rubbished Mayawati's charge that the UPA government was not providing adequate financial assistance to the state and pointed out that "of the state's total revenue, 60 per cent is provided by the Centre. The state's own resource mobilisation is able to provide for only the remaining 40 per cent.
"The falsity of the state government's allegation can also be gauged from the fact that despite complaints of large-scale irregularities in MNREGA and the state government's reluctance to take effective action in this regard, the Centre has not cut down on its allocation for UP."
Replying to a query, he said, "The Centre has its hands tied as the power for ordering a CBI inquiry is vested only with the state government. Under the present circumstances, only a court of law can now ensure a CBI probe by passing an order to this effect and we are hopeful that something will come out of the PIL that is pending before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court."
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