http://indiatoday.
Sonia unimpressed with UP job scam crackdown
Mail Today Bureau
Lucknow, April 1, 2010
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has finally cracked the whip on
those involved in employment scheme irregularities, but Sonia Gandhi
is not impressed.
The Congress president on Wednesday expressed concern over large-scale
corruption in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
in the state and hoped it would work better in 2010-11.
Sonia, who attended a meeting of the district vigilance and monitoring
committee in her Rae Bareli constituency, was also critical of the UP
government's laxity in implementing centrally-sponsored schemes.
Taking note of allegations made in the meeting that the authorities
had rejected at least 16,000 applications for jobs under the NREGS,
Sonia asked the district magistrate to inquire into the complaints.
She was also unhappy that only 45 disabled persons had got jobs under
the scheme in Rae Bareli in the last financial year. "The number of
jobseekers whose applications were rejected is too high," she said.
Sonia also took exception to the fact that only 22 per cent women had
got jobs under the NREGS in 2009-10 whereas the law stipulated that 35
per cent beneficiaries should be women.
UP Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh said Sonia had demanded
details on the progress made in implementing poverty alleviation
schemes for 12,000 below poverty line families at an earlier meeting
with officials.
"She was unhappy when the officials expressed their inability to
submit the final report and sought more time. She said they were not
following the instructions for smooth progress of central schemes,"
Singh said.
Sonia asked the officials to ensure there were complaint books in
every village panchayat so that workers could write their problems.
On Tuesday, the Mayawati government had registered FIRs against 78
government employees and suspended 72 of them for their involvement in
financial irregularities in the implementation of the NREGS. The move
is being perceived as an attempt to checkmate Congress scion Rahul
Gandhi's plans to launch an agitation over corruption in the scheme's
implementation in the state.
But Sonia was least impressed with the decision and asked the
officials why the scheme was not being implemented properly to
eradicate poverty and unemployment among unskilled labourers in her
constituency.
Earlier, she met a delegation of Indian Telephone Industry employees.
She also went to meet the family members of freedom fighter Gaya
Prasad Shukla, who was close to former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
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