PM lends patient ear to state Congress

BHUBANESWAR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday his government is determined to seriously take on corruption and corrupt people without hesitation.
"There can be no compromise with corruption or the corrupt. We will take all steps to prevent corruption and punish the corrupt," a senior Congress leader quoted the Prime Minister as saying while addressing an interactive session with party functionaries at the Congress Bhavan here.
Singh, after inaugurating the 99th Indian Science Congress, spent about 40 minutes at the meeting, which party insiders feel came as a shot in the arm towards activating the jaded state Congress.
The Prime Minister's reaction came in response to Congress leaders demanding CBI probe into a series of scandals against the state government, including the mining scam and allegations of misutilization of Central funds meant for various welfare schemes.
"Of late, a series of scams have come to the forefront in Odisha, raising grave doubts on the integrity of governance and questionable conduct of top politicians and bureaucrats. Of these, the mining scam, estimated to involve round Rs two lakh crores, far surpasses similar scams in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa," the party said in a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister. "It would be a great travesty of justice if the state government and other players in the scam escape responsibility. We would request that the Prime Minister may kindly intervene to make the guilty accountable through appropriate CBI investigation," the memorandum said.
The Congress further said despite the Centre extending "massive assistance to Odisha under different flagship programmes", the state government has not only "failed" to utilize the money but has lost "no opportunity to raise the bogey of Central neglect and discrimination".
"Using Central largesse to score political advantage has indeed been developed into a fine art. A substantial proportion of funds is being siphoned off by ruling party functionaries, officials and middlemen in the state," the memorandum said.
The Prime Minister in his speech denied the charges that the Centre has discriminated against Odisha. He instead said sufficient funds had been allocated to the state keeping in view the state's backwardness.
The Prime Minister said he is aware of all that is happening in the state. "There are a lot of things it won't be proper to say now in view of the panchayat elections," a Congress press release quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
The party further pointed out that the Maoist menace has spread to 22 out of 30 districts of Odisha, largely due to "poor governance in interior tribal areas and exploitation". "During the last 12 years the state government has utterly failed to improve the administration and developmental activities in the tribal districts and therefore has alienated the tribal people and made them increasingly susceptible to Maoist influence," the state Congress said.
Besides CBI probe into the scams, the Congress urged the Prime Minister to grant a special economic package for tribal and Maoist-prone districts, sanction one IIM, IIIT and a Central tribal university, make available a permanent bench of Odisha high court in western and southern Odisha, hike mining royalty, make higher allocation for railway network in the state and direct deposit of subsidy amount in cash on rice, kerosene, fertilizer in beneficiaries' accounts.
Congress leaders Narasingh Mishra, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Prashad Harichandan interacted with the Prime Minister at the meeting highlighting the quality of governance in the state. PCC president Niranjan Patnaik, party's state in-charge Jagdish Tytler, Union minister Srikant Jena, MP Bhakta Das and Union minister Aswini Kumar were also present at the meeting, among others.