BHUBANESWAR: CBI probe into the MGNREGA scam has come in handy for both the Congress and the BJP to corner the State Government. A day after the Congress announced its decision to move Supreme Court for a Statewide probe, the BJP on Thursday went a step ahead saying all scams should be probed by a court-monitored special investigation team (SIT). The party also released a chargesheet listing out the scams.The party will meet the Governor and demand a probe by an SIT, national BJP secretary and coordinator of the party’s anti-corruption wing Kirit Somaiah told mediapersons.The BJP leaders were critical of the Government saying the SC-monitored CBI probe into the job scam is first of its kind in the history of Orissa. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should volunteer for extending the investigation to all the districts if he wants to prove the cleanliness of his Government, BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra said.While the Supreme Court directed the CBI to limit its probe to 100 villages of six blocks of six districts for the wage employment programme done in 2006-07, the BJP demanded that the probe should cover from the beginning till 2010-11. Putting the dal scam under the supplementary nutrition programme at Rs 585 cr, Mohapatra said State Vigilance probing the scandal has stopped the investigation when it found the involvement of senior bureaucrats and prominent members of the BJD. The Chief Minister is not above suspicion as the decision to decentralise the dal procurement was taken by him. Besides, he is the head of the state level monitoring committee which supervises the execution of the programme, he added.Mohapatra said the real face of the Government was exposed when the Lok Pal pulled up the Government for gross violation of laws and the Orissa High Court directed it to do away with the dal procurement through private contractors. ‘’The Government has committed criminal breach of trust and should be prosecuted as per the law,’’ he remarked.Even as the party has launched statewide ‘Bhrastachar Hatao’ campaign, president of the party’s State unit Jual Oram claimed that the public rallies are getting huge response.
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