Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh appears to have kickstarted the Congress’ campaign for next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on a stormy note. After UP chief minister Mayawati shot off an angry letter to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh against Mr Ramesh, accusing him of being politically motivated for having sought her concurrence for a CBI inquiry into financial irregularities in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the state, the Union minister said the charges were “not political” at all, and the Comptroller and Auditor-General would soon begin a performance audit of the flagship scheme in UP and 11 other states.
Countering Mr Ramesh’s assertions that the UP government was not taking action against the accused due to political patronage, Ms Mayawati, in her letter to Dr Singh, accused the minister of “nursing a preconceived agenda”. She said 71 FIRs had so far been registered against the accused.
Mr Ramesh, however, said the charges were made by the State Level Quality Monitors (SQM) appointed by the UP government and the National Level Monitors (NLM), who had come up with evidence of embezzlement of MGNREGA funds.