New Delhi, April 25: The Orissa government on Monday staved off a full-on CBI probe into the alleged misappropriation of NREGA funds by offering to have a probe for now into alleged irregularities in the state’s six most-backward districts of Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Nuapada and Rayagada which comprise the infamous KBK belt known for its hunger deaths.

State counsel K.K. Venugopal said that the state government had already issued a notification consenting to a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in these six districts pointed out in a PIL filed in the Supreme Court. The PIL had pointed out serious irregularities in utilisation of NREGA funds allocated by the Centre in the state. The PIL, by the Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS), had focused its attention on the six most backward districts.

But a three-judge bench, headed by CJI S.H. Kapadia, insisted that the probe also look into the irregularities in the CAG and the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD). At the state’s insistence, the court said that it would clarify that the top court was examining the performance record of all states vis-à-vis NREGA.

Orissa just happened to the first to be probed. Elections were round the corner and the CBI probe may be held against the state, Venugopal said.

At the outset, the state government said that it had issued the notification signifying consent to the CBI probe on April 23, 2011.

The probe, he said, should be limited to the alleged misappropriation or actual instances of misappropriation pointed out in the PIL. Additional solicitor general Indira Jaisingh was quick to dispute this.

“We would like all deviations in the CAG report to be investigated,” she said, protesting against the limited probe suggested by the state. The CAG report had pointed out alleged misappropriation in 22 districts, she said.

Counsel for the NGO, Prashant Bhushan, also said that the whole range of deviations from the NREGA norms must be investigated. Once the CBI has probed all these, it may restrict itself only to the cases involving criminal offences, he said.

Misconduct could be dealt with through departmental inquiries, he suggested. Jaisingh suggested that the state should expand the scope of the probe by inserting the words CAG and NIRD into its notification. However, Venugopal insisted that the probe should not become a roving inquiry. “Let it not be a roving inquiry,” he said, adding it would be “difficult” for CBI officers to have such an elaborate investigation.

“If the CBI finds large-scale violations, then the court can order a further probe,” he said by way of mollifying all sides.

The CJI then asked the NGO counsel whether the probe could be carried out in stages. When Bhushan agreed to a limited probe as a “beginning”, the CJI insisted that the state probe allegations made in the CAG and NIRD reports in these six districts as well.

The state government immediately agreed to it.