Tainted ministers tarnishing CM’s image: Hazare

MUMBAI: The presence of a number of tainted ministers in the state Cabinet is tarnishing the clean image of newly-appointed chief minister Ashok Chavan, says social worker and Padmabhushan recipient Anna Hazare.

His statement comes in the wake of the Congress-NCP decision to reinstate some of the controversial ministers from the preceding government headed by Vilasrao Deshmukh.

These ministers were shown the door after Mr Hazare launched an agitation exposing their involvement in issues related to corruption.

In an interaction with the media at Ralegan Siddhi village in Nagar district on Friday, Mr Hazare said the presence of ministers like Surup Singh Naik and Nawab Malik, who have several offences in their name, is disturbing.

Mr Naik, who was earlier forest minister, was asked to resign after his role in allowing illegal saw mills was established. Even the Supreme Court was not able to save him from these charges. Eventually, he got himself admitted to a government hospital to evade arrest. Former labour minister Nawab Malik, in 2005, too was forced to quit. This was after the Justice PB Sawant Commission probed corruption charges against ministers Suresh Jain, Nawab Malik, Vijaykumar Gavit and Padamsinh Patil.

���Their presence in the Cabinet will stain Mr Chavan���s image,��� Mr Hazare said. He maintained that corruption in the political class was increasing, and criticised the state government for having no control over law and order. ���The intelligence agencies and police in the state were sleeping,��� said Mr Hazare, referring to the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

He added that there was an urgent need for restructuring of the police force by providing them with modern equipment. Mr Hazare asked Mr Chavan to put in his best at this stage. In his view, the government ought to announce loans at low-interest rates to farmers and quickly implement the Ideal Village Scheme.

The state government had appointed the Sawant commission in September 2003 to probe charges of corruption made by Anna Hazare against the four state ministers.