Senior Congress leader and former Union minister of state for rural development Chandrasekhar Sahu at a news conference at Congress Bhawan in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday and (above) panchayati raj minister Praful Samal. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 19: After senior Congress leader and in-charge of the party’s Orissa affairs Jagdish Tytler trained spears at Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik over alleged corruption in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the state Congress today renewed its attack and demanded Naveen’s resignation and that of two of his cabinet colleagues.

The two ministers who have come under fire are steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty and commerce and transport minister Sanjeeb Sahu. Both were ministers of the panchayati raj department when the alleged corruption had taken place.

Addressing a news conference, working president of the Pradesh Congress Committee Chandrasekhar Sahu said that the panchayati raj minister, Prafulla Samal, “has admitted that there were irregularities in execution of the scheme, (and that) responsibility should be fixed on someone.”

The PCC working president said that as the chief minister had failed to call the state-level vigilance and monitoring committee to review the works of the MNREGA regularly, he should be taken to task.

“According to central guidelines, a meeting at the district level should be held once every three months. At the highest level, regular meetings should have been held. The state government has failed miserably in this regard,” he alleged.

Chandrasekhar Sahu said that renowned NGO, the Centre for Environment and Food Security (CESF), had already pointed out that irregularities had taken place in the execution of the MNREGS in eight districts and the Supreme Court had also take cognisance of this.

“The Centre will issue a notification for a CBI inquiry into the matter. There has been rampant corruption in execution of the MNREGA in all 30 districts. The CBI should expand the ambit of the inquiry to all 30 districts.”

He added: “Many districts, including Ganjam, have got prizes for the execution of the MNREGA by showing false documents. This will be exposed by the CBI inquiry.”

After Naveen refused to comment on the allegations made by Tytler, Prafulla Samal came out with strong statements to defend the state government.

Samal said: “A few mistakes might have taken place while executing the schemes. It happens everywhere and Orissa is no exception.”

He said Tytler should not make an allegation without mentioning specific instances. “Many steps are being taken to check the irregularities.... If any irregularities have taken place, action will be taken against the person responsible for it. If a district collector or minister is found guilty he will not be spared,” he added.

Samal admitted that machines were being used for executing MNREGA work, which is not supposed to be done. “We have already initiated action. Payment has been stopped,” he said. He also claimed that migration for work had come down considerably during the Naveen Patnaik regime.