The war of letters between Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and UP chief minister Mayawati shows no signs of a let-up with Ms Mayawati sending another hard-hitting letter to the minister, rubbishing the allegations of
corruption in implementation of NREGS programmes in UP. She termed the charges “baseless and politically motivated”.
UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, who read out Ms Mayawati’s letter at a press conference here on Saturday, said the Centre had earlier described Uttar Pradesh as the best performing state in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for the past three to four years. The chief minister asked the minister if there was no corruption in other states.
Ms Mayawati wanted to know from the Centre what went wrong and why was UP suddenly being attacked on the issue. “It shows that there is politics, instead of genuine concern, in the charges,” she wrote.
Referring to the allegation that Ms Mayawati was protecting those involved in alleged irregularities in implementation of NREGA in some districts; the chief minister said that action had been taken against many corrupt officials in several districts.
The cabinet secretary that the Union minister had based his letters on the report of state-level monitors that had been deputed by the state government.
“Action has been taken in 117 cases of corruption reported by the monitors. Out of the 22 reports of the national monitors, state government has taken action in 17 and action for remaining is underway. The action taken report in all the cases have already been sent to the Central government,” he informed.
The second letter written by Mr Ramesh on November 14, accused Ms Mayawati of protecting those involved in alleged irregularities in implementation of NREGA in some districts, including Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonebhadra, Kushinagar, Mirzapur and Sant Kabir Nagar districts.
The CM lambasted the Centre for the special package for weavers. “The CM has asked for a `36,000-package for eastern UP which had proposals for the benefit of weavers but the Union government did not respond. Now that elections are round the corner, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote to the Union textile minister and he responded immediately. The package is a political gimmick.”