Gujarat Cong seeks probe into MGNREGA, Nal se Jal 'corruption'; submits memorandum to Guv

Gandhinagar, Jul 4 (PTI) The Gujarat Congress on Friday submitted a memorandum to Governor Acharya Devvrat seeking an impartial inquiry into alleged corruption in MGNREGA and Nal se Jal schemes.

In the memorandum, Leader of Opposition in the assembly Amit Chavda also said state minister Bachu Khabad, whose two sons were arrested in one such scam, must be removed from the Bhupendra Patel cabinet.

"The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre made Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) a historic law in 2005, ensuring 100 days of employment for the common man at home. But for the last few years, the MGNREGA law in Gujarat has become a law to fill the coffers of office bearers and officials with the connivance of the government machinery and not to provide employment to the common man," the memorandum said.

"After our repeated written representations, the government conducted an investigation into corruption in a few villages, which resulted in revelations of prevalent corruption. In the investigation of Devgadhbaria, Dhanpur taluka in Dahod district, it has come to light that corruption worth more than 100 crore has been committed," it added.

The memorandum alleged that though the direct involvement of Khabad's sons and his close aides has been revealed, he is yet to be dropped from the state government. Khabad can influence the probe into these cases, the Congress claimed.

The state police had arrested the minister's sons Balvantsinh Khabad and Kirit Khabad around a month ago in connection with an alleged Rs 75 crore MGNREGA scam.

Such type of corruption is prevalent in other districts of the state, the Congress said while seeking the formation of a Special Investigation Team.

"Your intervention is urgently needed. A SIT of neutral people sitting on judicial and constitutional positions should be formed to investigate the corruption of MGNREGA in the entire state. Like the MGNREGA scam, there is widespread corruption in the Nal Se Jal scheme," the memorandum said.

"Despite complaints with evidence from many districts across Gujarat, there is still no proper investigation and strict action against the corruption in the Jal se Nal scheme," it added.

Apart from Chavda, the delegation that met the governor included acting state unit chief Sailesh Parmar and MLA Jignesh Mevani. PTI PD BNM