MGNREGA irregularities: Mayawati hits back at Jairam Ramesh

LUCKNOW: Hitting back at Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh over the MNREGA irregularities issue, UP Chief Minister Mayawati today asked if any other state was being "harassed" in a similar manner and whether such an environment was being created "deliberately".

Questioning as to how so many shortcomings have surfaced all of a sudden, Mayawati said it was improper to give "baseless" information on the implementation of the scheme in the state.

Reading out the Chief Minister's statement at a press conference here, Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said, "The CM has said that giving entirely baseless and misleading information is not proper. She has requested that the Rural Development Minister should take immediate steps to bring transparency in MNREGA".

In a recent letter to Mayawati, Ramesh had accused her of protecting those involved in alleged irregularities in implementation of MNREGA in some districts while providing names of corrupt officials.

He had cited instances of alleged irregularities and corruption in the implementation of the scheme in Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Kushinagar, Mirzapur and Sant Kabir Nagar.

Singh said the letter written by Ramesh was received by the state government yesterday, whereas it was circulated to the media on November 17 itself.

"The CM wants to know whether any other state is being harassed in a similar manner by writing letters regularly. Whether such an environment is being created deliberately," he said.

Singh claimed UP was one of the best performing states in the country as far as question of MNREGA was concerned.

"The CM has asked that how come so many shortcoming surfaced all of a sudden," he said.