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Naveen Patnaik should quit, say Congress leaders

BHUBANESWAR: Continuing with its tirade against the Biju Janata Dal government, Opposition Congress on Tuesday demanded resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and three other Ministers over the alleged corruption in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme across the State.

The Chief Minister should step down on moral grounds as he had failed to discharge his duties as Chairman of the vigilance and monitoring committee for the schemes under MGNREGS, working president of the Pradesh Congress Committee Chandra Sekhar Sahu said. At a press conference, Mr. Sahu along with former Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang and former Minister Sarat Rout said that the Chief Minister and three other Ministers should quit their post to pave the way for a free and fair investigation into the MGNREGS scam.

The three Ministers whose resignation the Congress leaders demanded were Panchayati Raj Minister Prafulla Samal and his predecessors Raghunath Mohanty and Sanjeeb Sahoo who were holding different portfolios at present. The Congress leaders also demanded that the probe into the scam cover all 30 districts of the State and not confined to a few districts.

A CBI probe into the scam was likely as the Central government had already informed the Supreme Court that the Union Rural Development Ministry had given consent to this effect.

The new AICC in-charge for the State, Jagdish Tytler had on Monday posed seven questions to the Chief Minister and most of the questions pertained to alleged irregularities in the implementation of the MGNREGS.

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